HEALTH CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 15

HEALTH CAMPS

TIME OF SUMMER VACATION

(By Sir Truby King.)

Sir Thomas Sidcy's" proposal to postpone the date for beginning the long school vacation, from Christmas time to tho last week of January, is bound to succeed in the long run—but how soon will it bo carried? My reply to a constant stream of inquiries, received on the eve of leaving for Home, is "The sooner the better"; and my answer to the specific question as to whether I think tlie proposal will meet with sympathy and support from the Picket Society is to the same effect; viz.: 1 hope so, and the sooner the better. However, the society thinks for itself, and acts on its own initiative, not on my mere opinion. Next November the general conference of the Bociety will be held in Wellington; and no doubt the idea of putting forward the summer vacation (so as to embraco say the last week ot January, the whole of February, and the first week of March) will then come under full consideration, as a measure of extreme practical importance for the rising generation. One can scarcely overstate the value of ensuring to every child in the Dominion, as far as possible, a full month or sis weeks of healthy active open-air life during the warmest, driest, sunniest, and most settled weather. Not only is the period in question the pick of the year as regards atmospheric conditions; it is in every respect the • best for bathing, swimming, and boating, and for every healthful joyous bodily activity, embracing jncnieking, eamping-out, and the Scout movement for boys and girls. On the other hand, the typical weather of late December and the first few weeks of January is unsettled, and often so dull, rainy, and blustering, as to make the holidays extremely trying and disappointing. A single illustration may suffice to illustrate the folly'of our present arrangements.-- •■■ ■' .'■ •■'_■ • ■ ■ ' ... AN ILLUSTRATION. i.About Boven or eight, years ago_ ia summer camp for a lot of underweight boys and girls was formed about Christmas time, at Anderson's Bay, near -Dunedin: -Week after week of cold rainy blustery weather kept the children almost continuously damp, and more or less confined to the sodden tents. The ground round about became trampled into shallow pools and muddy quagmires; and at the end of a few, weeks, happening to be in Dunedin, I arranged for the girls to'be removed to a big, massive, disused annexe of the Mental Hospital . Department (MLarnactt's Castle"), which chanced to, be vacant^ at the time. There, though closely encircled by a dark gloomy forest of lofty pine trees, the children had an active, enjoyable-time, romping up and down the stone stairways from the cellars to the attics, and all over the extensive buildings, and drying themselves before the blazing open fireplaces, if, having ventured outside, they had been caught in a storm. However, in spite of the novel jind romantic environment, the term summer camp was never applicable in the proper sense; camping indoors' is not like camping outside in the open air. The experiment as a whole was a failure, and the results achieved were in striking contrast with what would have taken place had camping been delayed for four or five weeks. DELICATE CHILDREN. About thirty years ago, Schmidt Monnard showed, as the "result of searching .investigations made at Halle in Germany,.that the' delicate children not' allowed by the medical inspectors to go to school before reaching seven years of age, gained, on the average, during the year from 30 to 40 per cent, more in height and weight than the strong ■ children of the same age who were allowed to attend school—thus proving the injury done, especially to young children, -by keeping them sitting at desks and/confined indoors behind bricks-and-mortar, wooden-walls, and witidow-glass, when Nature and hundreds of thousands of years of Evolution were crying out for ample outdoor exercise, and exposure to open air and sunlight, alternating with rest, sleep, and the benediction of darkness. As Froebel said! last century with his infinite intuition and foresight: "Give children the Space and Time and Rest." HEALTH TOR THE CHILD. ■In confirmation of the soundness and wisdom, of conforming to the first principles of physiology it, was also found in Germany that children gained as much in one month spent healthfully and enjoyably in the open air and sunshine as they would gain'in" a year of ordinary schooltime. This observation has been confirmed during the last five or ten years, over the whole world, in connection with organised summer camps; and even more strikingly in the truly amazing improvement of nutrition and rapid natural cure of tuberculous children by systematic exposure of the surface of the body to open air and sunlight—as begun by Dr. Rollier at Leysin, in the Swiss Alps, rather more than a quarter of a century ago, and since recognised univer- , sally, as the one quick and effective road to health for people^ (especially children) afflicted with tuberculosis of the' skin, glands, bones, joints; etc. As modern civilisation, and the prevailing theories and practice of socalled Education give no adequate scope or opportunity for proper nutrition, growth, and all-round healthy development of -the body, it is surely incumbent pn the State to see at least that no barriers shall be allowed to continue which debar parents from giving their children the inestimable boon of the normal "open air life" for a.month or more at the climax of Summer. Sydney, 7th May.