TRIP TO BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 13

TRIP TO BRITAIN

iIOUSINU CONDITIONS

MRS. P. FRASER'S COMMENTS

HEALTH OF CHILDREN

Having been a prominent social f worker in Wellington for twelve years ■" or more, it was only natural that Mrs. - Frascr, wife of Mr. Peter Fraser, M.P., I should take a keen interest in theliv--1 ing conditions obtaining in the centres < ' she visited. In an interview with a "Post" reporter today, Mrs. Fraser said the improvement in the physique of the children in Britain was most nott iceable. When she first came out to ; New Zealand, she said, it was like L" meeting another race of people. Now, ■ however, there was hardly any differ--5 ence in the general physique of the i children. In Britain today the children were given a better chance; s schools were better and more atten- • tion was paid to the feeding of the \ children. Mrs. Fraser saw something of the . municipal flats in Sydney and a good i deal of the housing schemes in Glas- [ gow. A Burns memorial at Mauchl line, near Ayr, appealed to her great- , ly. This memorial takes the form of . a number of little cottages, where deserving old people are housed free. They are not required to pay taxes and they receive £6 a year from the " funds of the federated Burns societies^ As funds become available additional ' cottages are built. When Mrs. Fraser \ was at Mauchline there were about ' twenty cottages and others were being ; built. . j i CONDITIONS IN GLASGOW. 1 Housing conditions in Glasgow were of particular interest to Mrs. Fraser. ■ She said she noticed an appi'eciable 1 difference in the living conditions com- ! pared with what they used'tobe when , she was there twenty-six years ago. Many of the slum .areas had been cleared, though, she continued, there were ; still a good many tenements? which, , however, were much better than the ' people had previously. Nevertheless, living in tenements was not ideal. In Calton, one of the poorer districts, I there had been an extensive slum clearance. New tenements had been erected, and most of the people who had : lived in the older ones had gone into the new buildings. The district had a welfare officer, a woman, who was connected with the municipality. This officer visited the houses regularly and saw that the houses were kept clean and the health of the people was all right. It seemed to Mrs. Fraser to be an excellent idea, the welfare officer being well liked by the people. The tendency in Scotland and England was for the people to move further out from the cities, said Mrs. Fraser. In Glasgow there was talk of a satelite city—a smaller city outside Glasgow. The question, was being discussed while she was in Glasgow, because the housing problem , was so acute. In each town visited in Scotland there was a welfare centre and great interest was taken in the health of the children. "When I lived in Glasgow before coming out to New Zealand," said Mrs. Fraser, r'it was very common to see children suffering from rickets, many of the children being badly deformed, On my recent visit I did not see a single case of rickets. I suppose the activities of the child welfare movements have something to do with that. The people also are beginning to be much more sensible about sunlight. Children are getting out more and they have better food. I noticed also a considerable difference in the dress. The people seem to be much better dressed. At one time the shawl was very common, but one hardly sees that now. The people in Scotland are quite up-to-date in their dress." In London, Mrs. Frasi^- visited the Freemasons' Hospital at Ravenscourt Park, where Mr. A. C. Bacon, an old Wellingtonian, is the chief engineer. "The hospital," said Mrs. Fraser, "is one of the finest in the world; it cost £335,000 to build and is a complete departure from the traditionaFform of hospital." Mrs. Fraser said she found this hospital of very great interest. It is available to members of the Masonic craft and their families. YOUTH HOSTEL MOVEMENT. The youth hostels were- very interesting, said Mrs. Fraser, who visited an interesting one at Canterbury. To provide this hostel an old house of the fourteenth century style had been restored, though the form of architecture had been preserved. When she was at the hostel there were boys staying there from Germany and other parts of the Continent. They paid a shilling for a bed and there were facilities for cooking. In the courtyard of the hostel was ah alchemist's chimney. Mrs. Fraser said that she and her husband had found the office of the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London very helpful to them, and the same applied to the office of the New Zealand Trade Commissioner at Toronto. Miss Jean MacKenzie, who was in the Toronto office, was very popular with everyone. A New Zealanders' Association had been formed there, and Mr. and Mrs. Fraser met eighty New Zealanders, some of whom had been in Canada for many years. In Toronto Mrs. Fraser also visited the children's court. Among interesting personalities met by Mrs. Fraser in England was Lady Jehangir, a Parsee, whose husband was one of the delegates from India to the Empire Parliamentary Association Conference. Lady Jehangir is very interested in infant welfare, and she informed Mrs. Fraser that in India milk powder from New Zealand was used in their work and that the powder was considerd to be excellent. Another interesting/ delegate from India was Mr. Gauba, who wrote a book with the title' of "Uncle Sham," in reply to Mrs. K. Mayo's Book, "Mother India." Mrs. Fraser said that "hiking" was still popular in Britain, and there had been a great revival of the popularity of the- bicycle. On holidays and at the weekends young England took to the road, and a striking feature of the cycle traffic was the large number of tandems. Her trip, said Mrs. Fraser. had been most interesting to her, and it had benefited her health.