DENTAL TREATMENT FOR BACKBLOCKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 167, 5 October 1927, Page 1

DENTAL TREATMENT FOR BACKBLOCKS

DISUSE OF CARAVAN OTHER MEANS NECESSARY Reasons given for the scrapping of the dental caravan service to schools, did not convince the Auckland Education Board to-day. It considered that some means should be devised of reaching the back-blocks children with dental treatment. The of Dental Hygiene wrote stating that the caravan had been considered unsatisfactory because of the big expenditure and upkeep, bad roads which prevented it from reaching some districts, and excessive depreciation. A mechanic had to be kept to drive the caravan. “I had.hoped that the service would have been extended rather than curtailed,” said the chairman, Mr. A. Burns. The Chairman: The back-block children have enough to put up with now. They should be given every consideration. Opportunity was taken by Mr. J. D. McKenzie to reply to comment made by the pirector of Dental Hygiene on that member’s statement about the efficiency of the Whangarei dental clinic, made at the previous meeting. “The department feels very sore about it,” said Mr. McKenzie. “Compla Ints were made to me by parents arid the department has not yet explained that they are not so.” Mr. King thought that a big question was being raised if members were to be written to on the strength of newspaper reports. It was decided to ask the director to devise means of giving dental service to back-block children.