HEALTH FIRST.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 May 1920, Page 4

HEALTH FIRST.

TREATMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. FREE DENTAL CLINICS TO BE ESTABLISHED. (From Our Special Reporter.) Hawera, Last Night'•Education is little use to a child who grows up a miserable weakling, and the lirst tiling the State should consider is the health of its children, because with health a man or woman can do almost anything, and without it they can accomplish very little," remarked the Hon. C J. Parr, Minister of Education and Public Health,-in the course of an interview with a Daily News' representative. The Minister added that the Education Department were acting on the principle that not only dental infection, but dental treatment, particularly among the children in the back districts, should be provided. The Department was at present equipping two motor ambulances as dental clinics, and these would travel round the country, giving free dental treatment to school" children. These first two ambulances would be used principally in the back districts where dental treatment was ordinarily unobtainable, but as time went on, more would be equipped and treatment provided for the town children. A Chief Dental Officer will be appointed this week,'whose duty it will be to organise the department, and about a dozen competent dentists will soon be making a start under the scheme. Regarding free medical treatment of f-chool children, the Minister remarked that this was a very difficult, problem to deal with, but is was his ideal, althousb an ideal that would not be attained in a day. At the present time, added the Minister, medical inspection of children was carried out and the parents notified of any disabilities their children were suffering from. "Those parents who can afford to pay, and most people can," paid the Minister, "are willing to have their children attended to if the Department of Education regularly inspects them and notifies any defects in I lie children. But at the same time [ believe that the working man and the settler making only a small wage ought to be assisted by the free medical treatment of his children, and a measure such as this would help working people struggling against the high cost of living, and would also be an inducement to large families."