EMPLOYMENT OF CONSUMPTIVES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 174, 16 April 1908, Page 7

EMPLOYMENT OF CONSUMPTIVES.

STATEMENT BY THE HON. G. FOWLDS. (BY TELEGRAPH.—I'RESS ASSOCIATION.) ' ' r -Auckland, April 15. The Health Department is .about to inaugurate a scheme that has been in contempla-' tion for somo years. Tho proposal is. in the direction of providing : suitablo i omployment for peoplci who have been at the various Sfcato Sanatoriums, and Jiave recovered from consumption.' Tho details of the scheme are -withhold for tho present, but it will be on the'lines of enabling tho people referred to to-earn their living in n manner-that shall bo of benefit, not only to t-homsclves, but to tho State.

, Ciiristeimroli, April 15. In roferenco to the telegram from Auckland," relative to the employment of consumptives, the Hon. G. Fowlds, Minister for Public Health, informal a Press " reporter to-night,, that tho employment'would be in connection 1 with, tho treo-planting operations of tho Lands Department. Exrpatients would be provided with a -separate' ca'mp,- and. bo paid the ordinary rato of wages paid by the Department for ■ labour at tree-planting. They would thus have tho benefit of an openair lifo until tliey got hardened ,upj and ablo to, go to other employment, /'The. great drawback in connection with patients coming from tho Cambridge Sanatorium was -that they could not go back to ordinary offico occupations, and, if they : . did, they probably lost .before long the benefits they liad derived from tho sanatorium treatment. Tho experiment would be (tried first in the neighbourhood of; Whakarewarowa, where troe-piant-ing oporations wero now being carricd on. When tho South Island Sanatoria wero in operation, the same facilities for employment at tree-planting would, no doubt, be tnado available. ; : ' ;