Jungle Gyms Attacked By Surgeon

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30065, 25 February 1963, Page 10

Jungle Gyms Attacked By Surgeon

(New Zealand Press Association)

WHANGAREI, Feb. 24. The consulting orthopaedic surgeon to the Northland Hospital Board (Mr F. J. Gruar) is pleased that something is -being done officially about school jungle gyms. He “would like to see them all thrown into the harbour.” Fractured elbows or forearms were the two most common injuries from them, he s:id today, and it was possible that a child suffering a fractured elbow could be left with a d formity for life. Mr Gruar was commenting on the Press Association report that the Southland Education Board had ordered its school committees to see that all types of fixed climbing equipment at schools were removed from hard surfaces and placed on grass or over sawdust pits. Mr Gruar Aid the Whangarei schools were producing a fractured elbow a fortnight in the summer, mostly to children up to eight If the schools must have jungle gyms, then they must be mounted on a soft surface and play on them must be supervised, he said. He understood that this type of play was not always supervised.

Mrs O. W. Plank, of Whangarei, secretary of the Do-

minion Federation of School Committees, said that although the subject had not yet come before the federation, she unofficially agreed the equipment could be a danger. Most education boards were "frowning on them,” although the Southland board was the first to take such decisive action. She contended that the equipment was of value in physical education, but only under supervision and when mounted on a soft surface.