Doctors Approve Daylight Saving

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 357, 18 May 1928, Page 14

Doctors Approve Daylight Saving

EFFECT ON CHILDREN MEDICAL OFFICER’S VIEWS Press Association. WELLINGTON, Thursday. The director of the school hygiene division of the Department of Health recently invited schol medical officers throughout the Dominion to state briefly what effect, if any, summer time has had on the health and general welfare of the children in their respective districts. Replies have been received as follow: Auckland.—“ The effect has been neither detrimental nor otherwise,” says one medical officer. Another writes: "As far is I have observed the change has had no appreciable effect on the health and welfare of the chidren in my district.” Hawke’s Bay.—“ln general, the children of this district appear to have benefited by the summer time, especially small children in the primers, who thereby spend the hottest part of the day out of doors in a garden or park and so escape the hot and stuffy classroom.’ COOLER HOURS OF WORK Wanganui.—“ln my opinion, the putting on of the clock for summer time is of great benefit to all concerned, especially to children. In all my health camps I have worked on daylight saving. The advantages are, 1 think, that the children wake early. They get up and go to school in the coolest part of the morning, then leave school by 2 o’clock sun time. Children will be up early on fine mornings in any case, and if they have two or three hours to play before school they are tired out and find the day’s work a trial, whereas if these free hours come after school hours they are ready for bed at a reasonable hour.” Taranaki.—“ln view of the discussion which has arisen as to the effects of summer time on the children, I made inquiries from the teachers at many of the schools visited during the past two months. In no case was I able to get any evidence that the children in these farming districts were affected. They certainly showed no ill-effects when compared with similar groups of country children examined before summer time was enacted. The excessive heat and dryness of the summer might have been expected to prejudically affect the children, but no evidence was noted that this was the case. Indeed, my inquiries seemed to show that the evils ascribed to summer time were largely imaginary where school hours were not foolishly altered by school committes. Summer time involved the replacement of a hot afternon hour by a cooler morning hour of work. In a hot summer such as we have experienced this change was a very valuable one indeed. The two chief reasons for a continuance of the summer time enactment are the cooler school hours for the children and the greater facilities for healthy outdoor recreation for adults. I hope, therefore, that it may be possible to have this health-giving measure made a permanent one, with a possible extension of the yearly duration.” NO DIFFERENCE IN SOUTH Otago.—“l am not able to make any observations on the value or otherwise of summer time on the health and general welfare of children in my district. Southland. —“I have not noticed any special effect on the health and general welfare of the children. The parents say the children were tired during the observance of summer time because they could not get them to bed early.” , „ In a report presented to the Wellington Education Board yesterday it was stated that there had been a very gratifying increase in the regularity of attendance at the schools in the education district during the past quarter. In the opinion of many head teachers this was due to an improvement in the general health of the children consequent upon the introduction of daylight saving.