EDUCATION IN HEALTH.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19972, 5 July 1930, Page 17

EDUCATION IN HEALTH.

PRE SCHOOL CHILDREN. MB RENFREW WHITE'S ADDRESS Although he wished to bring no Scottish gloom to Christchurch, Mr Renfrew White, F.8.C.5., in an address at the annual meeting of the Christchurch branch of the Plunket Society last evening, deeply impressed the need for the proper physical development of children in their pre-sehool years. Showing by facts aad figures that the general health of children between the critical ages of 3 and 8 was anything but good, Mr White appealed to the Plunket Society to extend its work to this sphere, and himself suggested the basic reforms. He would set the facts before his audience, he began, as the Prime Minister had set New Zealand's financial position before the country. And, indeed, the stocktaking of the country's wealth had a very definite bearing on the stock-taking of the country's health. It cost money to give health to the •hildren, but it cost more to give them ill-health. 111-health, he had conservatively estimated, cost New Zealand £4,245,000 a year, of which £40,000 went for the school dental elinics. The Minister for Health had said the other day that he hoped the amount spent on school clinics would soon be increased to £IOO,OOO, but even that would not bo the end of it. An Evil of Unemployment. ,

"Every time I see the word unemployment I have at the back - of my mind a horrid thought," continued Mr White. '' That thought is not whether the children of the unemployed are getting enough to keep alive, but whether they are getting the quality of the food they should have. If the money is not spent now for the body-building and good health of those children, it will be spent later for their ill-health. Mr White spoke of the lives of doctors and- nurses and social workers. Day after day, year after year, they had to mend wrecks, physical and mental. In 1927, one person in every 20 in New Zealand went into a public hospital; one person in every 10 had medical treatment. Every year <rae person in every 50 was operated on in a public ' hospital, and one person in 2000 died of tuberculosis. _ In the mental hospitals, the Minister for Health had told him that the Government had to provide for 300 extra patients each year. The sub-matron, at the Seacliff Hospital had said that there were never enough rooms or bods. Mr White mentioned some bad cases of disease which-had come to his attention of boys, men, and women. He told of his decision, one day, that he had had enough of curing wrecks alone, and that he must turn also to examine the causes of those wrecks.

Pre-School Degeneration. He decided to examine healthy people. He went first to the Plunket Society's rooms, where he was shown fine babies, the majority of them strong and healthy, with pearly teeth. For his next' cross-section of human life, Mr White went on to the kindergarten school where, on the surface, all was bright and lovely. He was sorry ;to Bay that, with investigation; his impression changed. . In a Dunedia school o£ 60 children, -typical of the./Bchools of the country, one-third of aU-.the- teeth were decayed. He _ was not. overdrawing the picture, he emphasised, but speaking merely from actual facts* ; The next eross-section was taken as the children entered the primary schools, between six and seven years'of age. There he found fiat feet, khoekknees, enlarged stomachs, round backs, deformed chests, bad teeth, and tonsils. Among 292 children of an average;of six years at a primary school, nine, had perfect teeth and 283 had decayed teeth. The number- of toethi decayed averaged seven each. Mr White showed lantern slides of degenerate type's of physique which, he said, were all too common in the sclvqols. He emphasised the bad condition of the teeth, beginning even" at three years of age. Worst Teeth in the World. . "We have the worst in the world, I'm sure," said Mr White. "I have figures from London showing that the teeth of our children are worse than those of children in the slum districts. A . big proportion of the diseases of modern life come from the teeth. The £IOO,OOO which it will cost us in dental clinics will merely touch the fringe of the question.'' He thought sometimes, too, that tlierp chrmlri ho a )n« mnrio'.thot every child in New Zealand must have hiß tonsils removed. Mr White showed ; on the screen figures of deformity of, the truck in 1200 children examined, as follows: . Percentage Percentage Stds. 1, 2. 8. Stda; 4, 5,«. No deformity .... 4 ' -6 1 Slight deformity 80 SO Marked deformity 60 43 Severe deformity 16 - 88 Wrong Kinds of Food. Painful feet were one of the curses of modem civilised woman, yet onequarter of sll New Zealand children had severe deformity of the feet when they left school. And, to make things worse, that was just'the age when girls were beginning to wear fancy shoes.. What caused the great change in health between the years when the child was'cared for by the Plupket Society and his pre-school yearsP Mr White ascribed it to three main reasons—bad food, bad teeth, and lack of fresh air. New Zealand children were not getting the food to build their bodies right, food containing mineral lime, and phosphorus. They were getting, ion the contrary, too much of the Kind of food which was immediately burnt in the body and yielded nothing but heat and energy. Thus, their teeth were not built sufficiently strong to withstand the mouth acids. Parents made their children's teeth worse by encouraging them to eat sweets and sugar. Sugar and the Teeth. "Our children have the worst teeth in the world, and they eat more sugar than any other country in the world," continued Mr White.' "The two things run absolutely parallel. Concentrated sugar such as our children are chewing all the time is not only bad for the teeth but destroys the appetite. Bad, too, are soft bread, scones, pikelets, and ice-cake—all things thai hang about the teeth. Parents, teachers, even school committees in organising bazaars—they all throw sweets in the way of the children. Sugar is one of New Zealand 's greatest sins." ' Children had not enough fresh air. It was not the lack of oxygen nor too much carbon dioxide, but simply the heat of the body in enclosed air that was the trouble. Children must have the fresh, cool air circulating about their Bkin.. Mr White had the greatest admiration for what Christchurch wis doing to lead the way for open-air schools throughout New Zealand. <

plunket Society's Help. "I shall be well repaid," he ended, "if some pf you will think about what I have told you, and realise just how things are going on at present towards ill-health unless we change the conditions in which, our children live-—their food, their air, and the sedentary life of their schools. It is not so much a medical and economic probleih as an educa-

tional problem,- and there isno body " •with the organisation or " ti(e!-imWie confidence to carry out, of education better than the;> PBtwket Soeiety. Yon mast and then the "public, Yon außt"4astik ■< tute better health training «n<J. prate . tice in the schools. There th«"teiMe^Y*£ ; have to their state it ignorance rather than of apathy. TSeji are four great institutions in the try turning out .teachers—-they Plunket Society are the key to *- suooess of thi* mora in ed»oe*ig*^^^^ro