HEALTH IN CAMPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1918, Page 3

HEALTH IN CAMPS.

REMARKS BY THE DEFENCE COMMISSION. Discussing the health of the camps, the Defence Expenditure Commission makes the following comments: — "Trent-ham. has quite as good a showing as Fcatherston in health statistics, and, fortunately, the health rate in both is excellent, and the pride -of the medical authorities is justified. The death rate in camps is 3.51 per 1000; while t!ie death rate of the male civil population between the ages of 20 anrt 40 years is 4.02. These comparisons cannot bo accepted entirely at face value, because it may be contended that the trainees in camp have been picked as sound in wind and limb, which could not be claimed for the ordinary male civilian population outside. On the other hand, conditions in camp are so widely different from those in civil life that they are often a severe test ob n man's stamina and endurance. A better comparison, although not entirely satisfactory, is that in the Imperial Army, according to the latest hospital statistics available, the hospital admission rate was 437 per 1000, and the constantly sick rate 23£. In New Zealand training camps the admission rate is 410 per 1000, and the constantly sick rate 12*.