BUILDING UP A SOUND RACE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21356, 26 December 1934, Page 3

BUILDING UP A SOUND RACE

DOCTOR'S IMPRESSIONS TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALAND PEOPLE FTHE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, December 25. A tribute to the soundness of the race that is being built up in New Zealand was expressed by Dr. Theodore G. Gray, Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals in New Zealand, who returned to Wellington by the Makura on Monday, after several months spent in Great Britain with Mrs Gray. The public schoolboys of England were less robust and paler than the secondary schoolboys of New Zealand, he said, and there was a great difference in physique. "I have been to Britain three times since I first came to New Zealand 23 years ago, and I have always been glad to get back," said Dr. Gray. "One leaves the English vessels and .joins the New Zealand ship and finds it a relief to meet New Zealander"? again. The New Zealander is a cheery soul —he takes a man for what he is worth. The New Zealanders ars well received and well spoken of in London. There is a healthier and a happier outlook about the New Zealander which strongly appeals to me. I do feel we are building up a good race of sound people. I am not a New Zealander but a Scot. "I went down to Eton and went through the school, and was not impressed so much with the youth there as I have been with the boys of, say, Invercargill High School or Wellington College. By comparison the English public school boys are paler and not so robust. There is a difference that struck me as remarkable. We have a tremendous lot to be proud of. Our people have a great advan- j tage. 1 Successful New Zealand Doctors "New Zealand medical men are always welcomed at Home, and are occupying important positions. My sister, Dr. Helen Gray, is practising in London, and her experience seems typical. She had a New Zealand locum tenens, and says she was the best she ever had. It was found that she attended to the job all the time, was meticulously careful and considerate, and well received by all the patients. "I met a good many of the prominent men in England and Scotland in my field, including Sir Hubert Bond, Senior Commissioner in Mental Diseases. and Dr. Hamilton Marr. All I met were very interested to hear of the developments in New Zealand. In Melbourne I met the Inspector-General of Insane, Dr. Ernest Jones, and in Sydney Professor W. S. Dawson, and with them I discussed matters of mutual interest. My visit was official, and it was satisfactory in every way.

England "in Greater Heart" "England is in greater heart, as I could note after an absence of seven years following visits before that. It was very noticeable to me how few poor people one saw about the streets. Now one does not see so much poverty. In Edinburgh, too, where the slums used to be so noticeable as well as in most of the large cities, there is a move from the slum areas to garden suburbs. That is a very good sign. The pity is that in the West End of London the move is from houses to flats. "There is no doubt about England's returning prosperity. There is an air of confidence—a very definite difference. "Amongst numbers of New Zealanders I met was Dr. Eugene Lynch, wko was surgical registrar at Wellington Hospital. He is now working on diathermy treatment"