AID FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 117, 12 February 1944, Page 5

AID FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

Meeting Of N.Z. Council

WORK OF TRAVELLING CLINICS Letters of appreciation from the Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay branches for the assistance rendered in making possible travelling orthopaedic clinics were received nt n recent meeting of the executive council of the New Zealand Crippled Children Society, Mr. , Frank Campbell, chairman, presiding. The secretary, Mr. C. Meachen, gave a comprehensive’ report of the clinic which visited Greytown, where 16 children were interviewed by the orthopaedic specialist appointed, by* the Director-General of Health. Sir Charles Norwood, president of the society, attended the clinics held at Grey town and Masterton, and spoke to the parents and crippled children. Sir Charles expressed his pleasure to the council for this very practical and progressive work which the council, in conjunction with the Department of Health and hospital boards, was undertaking on behalf of the country children whom it was .found difficult, for various reasons, to bring to base hospitals. Further clinics were held at the Masterton, Pahiatua, Waipikurau and Napier Public Hospitals, and at the Hastings Memorial Hospital. During the tour of the clinie 76 cases were seen by the specialist and in some instances parents, together with their children, had travelled a long distance to receive the benefits. In one case a mother and two children travelled 40 miles, and, were held up in a swollen river till assistance was forthcoming. To enable them to attend at the clinie they were away from home for some two days. Dr. M. H. Watt, Director-General of the Department of Health, has written to the council. stating that the clinics were extremely valuable and he hoped that the New Zealand Crippled Children. Society and the department, together with branches of the society and hospital boards, would be able to maintain them during the forthcoming year or even to extend them. Dr. Watt expressed the department’s appreciation of the work the society was doing, particularly in connexion with these clinics, which had been 'of real value to large numbers of disabled people in different parts of New Zealand. 1 Nurse, for Marlborough.

Advice from the president of the .Marlborough branch, Mr. G. J. Penny, informing the council that they had now appointed a nurse to look after the needs of the children in the Marlborough district was received with much pleasure, and it was decided to congratulate the branch? - Correspondence from the factory controller with an offer to assist the Canterbury branch of the society with the manufacture of remedial and surgical footwear was considered and referred, to the Canterbury branch for a report. ItAvas also reported to the meeting that the resource and ingenuity of an Inglewood motor engineer had considerably brightened the existence of a Waitara resident. Though inquiries were made throughout the Dominion for an arm-propelled chair for a youth unable to walk, no chairs were available. A considerable amount of improvisation and unorthodox construction was found necessary, but this lad had now been provided with a chair by the New Plymouth branch. The axle, for instance, was part of a motor-car steering column, the drive came from a two-speed motorcycle gearbox, and the steering gear, which had to be light, strong and flexible, was evolved as the job proceeded. The body of the chair was poplar, a wood that is light. and tough, and the tyro control committee at New Plymouth helped the local branch achieve its desire of making the chair a Christmas gift, which was’ then presented to the youth by the mayor of Waitara; Members of the council expressed their pleasure and thanks to the large number of men and women throughout New Zealand who were assisting the branches of the society 'to brighten the lives of crippled children.