PROMOTING HEALTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1938, Page 6

PROMOTING HEALTH

MINISTER ON THE VALUE OF RESEARCH PREVENTION OF DISEASE GREATEST HOPE FOR FUTURE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “I am more hopeful about research work than about any other aspect of our health activity,” said the Minister of Health, the Hon P Fraser, when the estimates were being discussed in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Minister said the greatest hope for the future was in preventive medicine and research work. “What had been done constitutes the greatest advancement that has evei' been made'in New Zealand with regard to the prevention of disease,” said Mr Fraser, when replying to a question by Mr R. A. Wright (Independent, Wellington Suburbs) concerning an amount of £5OOO set aside for research work under the Medical Research Council. “I do not think money could be better spent than for the purposes of this research, and it is quite possible that £5OOO spent now may save us £500,000 or £5,000,000 in the future. Without detracting in any way from the value of curative medicine, I think our greatest hope for the future is in preventive medicine and research work, and I would like to think that the House and the country were wholeheartedly behind this effort.” The Minister said that the men and women appointed to the Medical Research Council and its committees were giving their services voluntarily in many respects and were prepared to devote years to.important and beneficial research. He was more hopeful about research work than about any other aspect of health activity. “Already great work has been done in connection with tuberculosis, particularly among the Maoris, and the work is being extended into other diseases,” said Mr Fraser. “These problems are urgent, as they exist—sometimes devastatingly—in our midst at present. One never knows whether New Zealand may not be‘able to give some great contribution to the world’s knowledge of the prevention and cause of some disease.”