Nature’s Tonic

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 636, 12 April 1929, Page 8

Nature’s Tonic

Sunshine School for Auckland

r J'HE health-giving elements in the direct rays of the sun have been extensively exploited during the past few years, mainly through the investigations of scientists who recognise in one sunny day a complete and effective dose of nature’s medicine. Throughout the world a movement has been operating to apply these elements to the health of children —not only children who are physically subnormal, but those who by the pressure of school lessons and home duties are

deprived of sun-bathing, and those whose recovery from illness is hampered by Insufficient fresh air and solar ray. This movement has now come to Auckland. The school, the establishment of which will depend mainly upon public support, Is tucked %way in a sunny corner of Nelson Street, where the old primary school is being used for the general purposes of the Community Club. The whole building and playground cost the club £5,000. To transform one wing into an open-air school with facilities for sunshine application will djost another £I,OOO. The equipment of the building itself for the social amusement and edification of the young members —ranging in age from 9 to 18 years—is costing several hundreds of pounds. The idea of the sunshine school in Auckland was first suggested by representative medical men, who sought, not to cast the stigma of charity upon the poorer class children, of the city, but to face ill a common-sense manner what unquestionably constitutes a social problem. Charity is not suggested; the thought of physical misfits is driven completely from the mind.

MEDICAL men in Auckland have signified their approval of the sunshine school, which is to be opened shortly by the Community Club. Prom 50 to 60 children oi primary school age will be taught in this open-air institution, the idea of which originated in Continental countries.

The school is simply a special course of lessons, fresh air, sun and diet for those whom the school doctors consider to be in need of it. Children coming convalescent from the hospitals will not necessarily have to return immediately to their primary schools, but will, if their case is recommended by the school medical authorities, be sent on the more specialised road to fitness under the teacher at the sunshine school. It is hoped that a Government nurse will be available to visit the homes of the pupils at the solarium instructing the parents in the diet which is prescribed by the doctors for the children. FRESH AIR ALWAYS The school itself is a place where from 50 to 60 children will learn, play and rest in the open air. In summer and in winter they will be in the open, with just a roof over their heads on dull and wintry days. In the flue weather they will parade and rest, unclothed, in the sunshine upon the roof of the solarium. Certain periods of rest are essential among these children, for medical experts have decided that much physical and mental retardation among children is due to insufficient rest in infancy. The establishment of the sunshine solarium, which, by the way, is the first to be mooted in New Zealand, is not yet assured. Its foundation will depend largely upon public support. For this support, the promoters of the Community Club have been offered the proceeds of a full week of programmes at Luna Park, Auckland’s scenic novelty attraction, starting tomorrow. By this means the club hopes to secure enough money to cover the architect’s estimate of £I,OOO for transforming the building and to provide incidental requirements. SUCCESS OVERSEAS The success of this class of solarium in New Zealand can at the moment only be conjectured. Its results toward strengthening the bodies and brightening the minds of its pupils can be anticipated only in the light of experience in other countries. In England and America and on the Continent the sunshine school, with fully equipped solarium, has been operating for some years with the enthusiastic approval of the medical profession. In Switzerland, where the ground becomes thick with snow, the children sit, healthy and snug, in the open air, but encased in thick “woollies” to repel the biting cold. The results, which were observed by the founder and president of the Community Club, Mrs. Nellie E. Ferner, during her travels abroad in 1924 and 1925, are in every case successful. Mrs. Ferner expresses confidence that, with a continuation of the remarkable public support which has already been given her movement in Auckland, a big social improvement can be effected here in a comparatively short time.