Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1911. HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10133, 11 January 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1911. HEALTH OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

* , p f Some months back a sensation was caused in New Zealand by the publication of reports of medical officers on inspections made of children attending various State schools in the Dominion. It was thought, at the' time, that the importance of adopting some systematic measures for coping with the more common forms of disease prevalent', .among''the rising generation, would have impressed, itself, upo,n,the Legislature,', and that . sQnie means would have heen discovered of better preserving the health of the ming generation. Apparently, however, the Legislature was too much engrossed petti--fogging '.personalities; to devote itself-' earnestly to the solution of so pressing a problem. It is interesting to note that' the authorities in the Old *

Country aro awakening to their responsibilities in this matter. A'report recently presented by the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education showed "a large degree of suffering, incapacity, and inefficiency." The London Times, dealing with the report, says:— "From the ''point of view of the physical future "of the nation, perhaps the most im"portant of the described conditions "is the prevalence of extensive dis"ease of- the teeth, disease which, "as is well known, is a frequent ' 'cause of the rejection i of intending "recruits for the Services. It shows "that the .schools, whatever else they "may havo done during the last fifty "years, havo not succeeded in bring."ing home to the'children who have "passed them a knowledge of things "which would have been of the Lightest importance to their welfare, ."and would have .prepared them far "better than they are prepared at "present, to cope with the difficult"ies of their lives." The few reports which have been obtained in New Zealand show that not only do a large percentage of our children suffer from alimentary _ and, optical' diseases, but that the; neglect of the various forms of ailment is as systematic \\sii' is:appalling. Vfhe irh&fc ter is one which calls for immediate and close attention on the part of the Government. Unless something is done to improve the existing conditions, it will not be long before the population of the country is reduced to a state of physical impoverishment and incapacity for the ordinary avocations of life.