GEORGE V MEMORIAL FUND

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 175, 21 April 1937, Page 13

GEORGE V MEMORIAL FUND

Appeal by

Dr. M. H. Watt

VALUE OF HEALTH CAMP MOVEMENT “It is my pleasant duty, both as Director-General of Health and as a citizen, to give my support to the King George V National Memorial Fund, which is being raised to establish, permanent health camps in the Dominion as a memorial to his late Majesty, said the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. 11. Watt, yesterday in an appeal to the people of New Zealand. "None of us will ever forget the spontaneous sorrow which- enveloped the Empire in January of last year when the people lost both a beloved Monarch and a friend, and it would be unthinkable that there should not be an equally spontaneous personal response to the appeal for a national memorial worthy of our affection. Both the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J Savage, and the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, who have already made appeals for this national memorial, have emphasised our late King’s deep concern for the welfare of his people, particularly the children, and we who have been inspired by his leadership in problems of human welfare have a duty to fulfil in carrying on the work of raising and maintaining the standards of health in this Dominion of the Empire. The form of our memorial has been endorsed by His Majesty King George VI, who personally inaugurated a camp system for boys in England, and it now behoves us to play our part. “As a worker in public health, I assure you that these camps will play a vital part in our public health system. I was very interested to hear Mr. Forbes refer to the health camp movement as a natural sequel to the Plunket movement. That statement is true. The greater' the development of these camps the greater will be the benefit to the Dominion. The fundamental basis of public health is prevention, and these camps are just as essential to the welfare of country children as the children from the towns. The camps have catered for the young people from both urban and rural areas, and I wish to remove any misconception -that may have arisen on that point. “In the health camp movement we have a link in the chain of measures for prevention of disease and active promotion of health. It takes the proper line of education of the young, while at the same time it fortifies them, and has the additional merit of showing their parents that always good results, and sometimes astonishing results, are produced by simple methods of right living. We have within our grasp useful means for lessening the future inflow to our public hospitals, by taking children in hand before a constitutional breakdown occurs—before something has developed that the passing of years and even the best of medical treatment may fail to stem or eradicate. If only as a anti-tuber-culosis- measure—and it is very much more than that—health camp work fully justifies its existence. “if a child falls a victim to disease or infection it cannot be taken into a health camp, but is already a candidate for hospital treatment. It is most important, therefore, that means be maintained to enable timely selection of children requiring prior treatment in a health camp and that we have more of these institutions in order to widen their benefits. The time may come when all children will be afforded an opportunity of a. stay in a health camp, where they will receive a proper grounding in physical culture and personal hygiene, but for the present our chief concern is to get the movement under way. The opportunity is now afforded citizens to contribute toward a national memorial to King George V, and to assist in a practical way toward pioneering a movement that is certain to continue growing and gaining in momentum. “We are all united in two matters,” concluded Dr. Watt: “First, in reverence for the memory of King George V, and secondly, in the earnest desire that the children shall have health and happiness. These two thoughts are combined in the scheme for our national memorial.”