INSUFFICIENT CLOTHES.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 11 June 1919, Page 4

INSUFFICIENT CLOTHES.

POORLY-CLAD CHILDREN. The question of the dressing of young children, and the. practice of sending girls to school with legs bare to the thighs was strongly condemned at the annual conference of the Otago branch of the Educational Institute on Friday. Mr Tyndall moved: “That in cold weather young children should not be sent to school with the greater part of their legs bare.” He said that the tendency of the dress of some unfortunate youngsters especially young girls—-who came to school was to keep them in constant ill-health. Little girls came to his school with nothing on tlieir legs at all. At the same time their fathers—great, powerful men—did not go out without at least two wrappings round their legs. What surprised him was that the medical profession had not taken the matter uji. He was afraid that these new-fangled methods of dressing chlTdren meant trouble in the future. How, he asked, could the poor creatures hope to keep warm when the blood in its passage from the heart had to pass through a frigid zone? Miss Andrew said that the expression some of them had for the clothing of children described was “lamp shades.” In a warm climate a certain exposure of the legs -and body to the sun was beneficial, but in a climate like thus the mode of dress referred to was altogether wrong. One of the medical officers had taken up the matter in the north, and how much more necessary was it that the practice should be discouraged in DunedinNo teacher could help noticing how much children thus dressed suffered. Mr Bennett said there was also a moral aspect. The motion was, carried with a stentorian “Ave” from the whole room.