The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 18. NEW ZEALAND'S FINEST ASSET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8159, 18 July 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 18. NEW ZEALAND'S FINEST ASSET.

[l is not a very difficult conundrum to answer. Some people, if asked what is New Zealand's finest asset, might variously reply: " Scenery," " Sheep," " Land," " Butter," etc. Our answer ia: " Her Children." New Zealand wants a lot of this asset, and its chief liability is in looking after these potential citizens. A Home medical man out here the other day expressed himself surprised at the physical soundness of the average colonial youngster, remarked that malformations were less frequent among them than among their Home cousias, and said things generally that ought to make us feel very proud of the infantile population indeed. It is, as you know, a rarity to see a case of spine-curvature in the schools, but we do not think that this issomuchthe result of the school system as the result of conditions that are more natural than those in the Old Country. * * » »

The great mass of youngsters in New Zealand are " better-bom " than the | mass of youngsters in the Old Land. When we say " batter-born " we do not mean that they are of bluer blood or any rubbish like that. We mean that the bulk of the parents are better fed, freer, happier, and have more fresh-air recreation, and are consequently better able to reproduoe their kind healthily. Still, even wellborn children may deteriorate, and it is to stop the deterioration of our finest asset that every effort of the State and parents should tend. If •iu buy a chaff-cutter or a reaper-and-bind'er, P r SV9n ft P lo^ h j! y° u don't expect it to be i creui " ;" the maker or yourself if you usA it iivu weeks in the year and let it rust fifty. And a child is of more importance than many ohaff-outters or reapers or ploughs,

t * # • To impress this upon the community, the Health Department of New Zealand proposes to instruct teachers in the detection of complaints that may handicap schoolchildren in school or after life. The observant person, even with the unassisted aid of comnion-senso and personal experience, is able to detect symptoms of illness in a child, but there are to many abnormalities present in pre-sent-day people that only the acut i can detect them. Many an ill child is ruined irretrievably by unsympathetic and ignorant treatment, and, of course, everybody knows that thousands of infants are absolutely killed off every year by ignorant, if loving, parents. The proposed me lical examination of New Zealand schoolchildren is not new. Most of the older nations recognise the enormous importance of fostering health and most of them have some system. The presence of physically unfit children in schools does not necessarily mean that such children are to be made a medicine sink, or experimental "cases" for enquiring medical officers. * # » A

Medical men are beginning to understand that all the virtue of cure does ntt belong to the Brit'sb Phar macopieia, and the old-fashioned physi.ini is happily being weeded out. It is a luanaca to an ill child to be forced to observe the sometimes heart-breaking routine of a sc'iool, and to be hau.licapp-jd against his mates by such u;ifitii(>ss, an 1 it, is. for tli« purposes of de.iling intelligently with this minority that the Health Department is waking up. Many a youngster has been caned for the stupidity of being deaf, and many a youngster has had his malady made worse by being accused of slowness, when he had bad eyes or some other infirmity. A healthy child, as soon <is he is released from school, yells with delight and rushes round like a wild thing. He is just as naturally a wild thing as the black kiddy who never goes to school. If you prevent that youngster from rushing around to the full extent of his exuberant spirits you harm him. Consequently, keeping a " stupid " child in when his mates are being natural is not only cruel to the child, but a bad thing for our best asset.

* * » # No one, however, who has the interest of the splendid children of New Zealand—who, by actual tabulated results, are the heaviest, best-devel-uped children in the world—is going to shed many tears for them. At present, in most cases, they are most intelligently handled. The alleged lack of reverence or respect is merely exuberance of health. Keep a child in a darkened room, impair his sight, digestion, and health generally, and he will have all the reverence and respect the dourest Puritan could desire. But if among the thousands of bonnie children in New Zealand there are a few hundreds who are being handicapped in life by the ignorance of people who look after them, is it not the proper course to sweep away Uie ignorance mid the handicap at the same time? No expense should be deemed to be too great, no trouble too heavy, to increase the haalth of our finest asset, and reduce the liability of the joint-stock company ni"st con- : cerned,