SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC.

Shannon News, 8 May 1928, Page 3

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC.

SUPPLEMENTARY STATE SCHEME

SOUGHT. . TO EMBRACE THE DISTRICT. HON. McLEOD GIVES SYMPATHETIC HEARING. A deputation from the Levin District High School Committee waited on the Hon. A. D. McLeod (Minister of Lands),' at the Grand Hotel on Friday afternoon, with a request for the Government establishment of a district dental clinic. The chairman (Mr A. W. Hutchings) said they realised that Mr McLeod was not Minister for Health or for Education, but the members wished to take advantage of his visit to place the matter before him. There were a large number of people on the land who were interested in the scheme. The proposal was that a dental area be established extending from Paekakariki to Shannon and across to Poxton. Excellent wost was being done by the clinics in the city, and there was no question that there were, sufficient children to warrant the establishment of a dental' clinic in Levin. There would be no difficulty, he believed, in securing a thousand children in the district to receive treatment under this system. The committee would endeavour to get in touch with the Minister of Education at an early date, to secure his support. Mr Hutchings then asked Mr D. S. Mackenzie, originator,'of the Levin school dental scheme, to express his views on the subject. Mr Mackenzie stated that there had been a local dental clinic for the last 10 vears, and he' was impressed with the'necessity for its being carried out on a more extended scale. He had been a staunch advocate of people helping themselves, and the people here had helped themselves and there had been as many as GOO children contributing to the scheme. Ninety per cent, of the children at the primary school here could be made and kept dentally fit. He would continue to carry on the clinic as he had done in the past; it was more efficient for the dentist to visit the school,' than for the children to have to visit the dentist. The State clinic should be one: moving ;from school to school, rather than one necessitating the establishment of two 'or three centres iii the district. He recognised that there was room both for a private and a State clinic, but he would be only too pleased to do anything he could to help a State clinic if one were set up here. v ~'';. ' Mr R. J. Poss, Headmaster, said that when he.: came to Levin he found, a dental scheme in vogue and he was much interested in it. It was one in .which the parents had been- subsidised by the Government to a small extent, the effect of .which was to reduce the charge to parents who h a .d, ~a number of children.'""' The scheme would have been quite impossible if it had not, .been taken up, by Mr Mackenzie, who for £1 per annum gave the child the same treatment as a patient would rcceivec under private arrangement. This sum was very low —not an adequate professional return —but still it had pre seated a bar to some parents, and theii children could not be registered den tally. The question was thus raised whether the Government could extend to the children of this district the facilities available to children attending the clinic in Wellington. The facilities available in the town of Le-' vin should be available for the children of the people iii the district,; including the surrounding schools. The Minister, in reply, said that he was fairly familiar with all that the deputation had stated. He would convey their representations to this colleague, who would let them know what he was able to do in the matter. It was a subject that had already been before Cabinet on two or three occasions. The value of the scheme to the child, of course, no one disputed. There were many other disabilities from which children suffered; he did not know whether the responsibility was to be thrown on to the taxed parents of the Dominion, but somebody had to make a decision before long. He thought that the general quota of this country was getting beyond the capacity of the taxpayers to bear. The Chairman: They want to travel a bit. , , ■ i 7 The Minister: Supposing they do; i have heard very few people who say they are paying too little taxation m any way. , Mr McLeod added that various departmental matters that had been .uik dortaken were exercising the minds of those responsible for the finances of the country. As Minister of Lands, however, he stood for the needs of the rural children of this country, who should receive all the facilities that were extended to city children, on the broad principle that* what one child can get all should got, How far tlw country was .drifting into a socialistic and communistic state he was not prepared to argue at this stage, but one man had told him that this was becoming the most socialistic country under a Conservative Government in the world. Such movements started in a small way, but grew like a snowball. Those who had fathered the scheme of dental clinics never anticipated that it would grow to the dimensions which it had reached to-day. If sufficient pressure was experienced from the people, he supposed that. the Government could add another hundred thousand or so to its vote for educational matters as soon as it liked. He had not lost any opportunity of urging the need for dental clinics iiv his own.electorate. He had been informed that the number of young ladies; being educated to deal with this matter was limited at present, and*as far as possible they were supplying what the Department considered the greatest needs of the" moment. He,-.-thought that every nurse they had was booked for twelve months ahead. He would have pleasure in conveying the deputation's statements to his colleague. Later on it would have to be for Cabinet and

perhaps for the electors to decide whtft should be the policy in these matters. He had been very pleased to hear Mr Mackenzie's remarks, \because so many pfofessionai men said'that there was too much interference from the Government. The chairman then thanked the Minister for the sympathetic hearing which he had given'the deputation.