TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20923, 30 September 1939, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Malnutrition in the Colonies The Report of the Economic Advisory CounciTs Committee on nutrition in the colonial Empire may be summarised crudely by saying that dietetic conditions in the Empire are bad and are not likely to be much better in the near future, says the Spectator. To measure malnutrition in the colonial Empire is by any standard impossible, owing to the immense variety of physical conditions, but colonial diets are in general insufficient in quantity and still more insufficient in quality. “Judged by European conditions they are lacking in variety and protective value.” The committee enumerates a number of diseases and affections common in the colonial Empire which are directly due to malnutrition, while its indirect effects are probably even greater, and malnutrition is named as “one of the most important factors in causing high infant mortality in tropical countries, which at present exceeds 200 per 1000 live births in many parts of the colonial Empire and sometimes even exceeds 300 per 1000.” Any considerable improvement depends on large-scale agricultural and commercial development, as only a few of the constituents of an adequate diet are at present available in the colonial Empire; but as the effects of poverty are aggravated, there as here, by ignorance, some alleviation should be possible now as a result of education and instruction.