HEALTH AND MILK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 204, 29 August 1934, Page 6

HEALTH AND MILK.

The old story of the London boy who refused jam at a Sunday school treat because he worked in a jam factory may point to one explanation of New Zealand's relatively small consumption of milk. A large section of the nation is so regularly and permanently busy with milk that many persons may grow to hate the sight and taste of it. This, hoAvever, would not account for the abstention of the towns, which house half the population. The truth seems to be that we drink less milk than we should, firstly, because we have not been ducated properly to its use, and partly because it is dear. The Governor-General asked the other day why, with our excellent climate, our hospitals are so full. It is a curious state of affairs that in a country with the lowest infantile mortality rate and general death rate in the world, there should be so many hospital patients. His Excellency thought one explanation might be not only the underconsumption of milk here, but the deficiency of lime in the milk of some districts. This looks reasonable, for the connection between milk and teeth and general health is well established. That New Zealand teeth are bad cannot be denied, and it is time that definite causes were assigned for this defect. If children need more milk, or if some of the milk marketed is deficient in necessary' qualities, action should be taken. Experiments in England seem to show conclusively that milk is the most necessary food for children, and that subjects who are fed liberally on it grow faster and become stronger than those who take only a little. It has been proposed that the dairy farmers in Australia and New Zealand should subsidise a "drink more milk" campaign in Britain, but it may be suggested that they should educate their own people first.