DEFORMED FEET FOR N.z. GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 43, 20 February 1940, Page 10

DEFORMED FEET FOR N.z. GIRLS.

111-fitting Shoes Are the Cause.

' An excellent remit eame before the National Council of Women last night. An associate branch forwarded the following remit: "That the National Council of Women of New Zealand, Auckland branch, ask the Government to set up a committee of experts to go into the whole question of the manufacture of New Zealand-made shoes on a scientific basis, with multiple fittings, for NewZealand women and girls." Mrs. A. Warder showed sketches of feet, illustrating the fact that as soon as girls leave school and start to wear ''fashionable shoes," they commence also to deform their feet. The process, she said, was gradual, and no actual discomfort might be felt for years, but when women were older, about 40, they found themselves with bunions, corns, cramped and distorted toes. "The effect on general health cannot be overstressed," Mrs. Warder said. "Not only are feet deformed, causing actual pain and crippling, but the whole alignment of the body is upset, with consequent internal complications." It was pointed out by this and other speakers that while some imported shoes provided scientific comfort, only people with ample purses could afford to buy such shoes. The average girl, buying her first shoes after she left school, was forced to buy locally made ones at a cheap price. She wanted to look "smiart," and she could not afford to buy the best fittings, so she adjusted her feet to fit her purse and her taste—both sadly inadequate to provide for future health. Another speaker said that New Zealand manufacturers could, and did, make shoes that would comply with regulations, and tihat she was perfectly satisfied. Mrs. Warder said that statistics showed that to every boy who suffered from foot trouble, 15 girls were so afflicted. Very few women at all reached the age of 40 without having deformations. New Zealand was not foot-minded. In England people received foot treatments free at the clinics every few months. It was finally decided, as the meeting was not sure whether it wished to approach the Government or the manufacturers' associations, to set up a subcommittee to go further into the subject. Nominations for the Dominion president and secretary from the branch were agreed on as follows:—President, Mrs. W. H. Cocker; secretary, Miss G. Hemus. Mrs. McNlair was renominated for treasurer. The election will take place at the Dominion conference in ApriL