MALNUTRITION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 16

MALNUTRITION

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —As a churchman for the last twenty years, I would like to ask Mr. Mazengarb whose duty it is to see that malnutrition does not exist in New Zealand? Years ago the late King Edward VII made the following remark when referring to that dread disease consumption: "If preventible—why not prevented?" And this slogan can well be applied to the question of malnutrition amongst school children, which Dr. Gunson states exists. The doctor is to be thanked for opening the eyes of the community. Now it is incumbent upon the public to rectify this state of affairs. Malnutrition is preventible. "Why not prevented?" is the question to be answered, and this question vitally affects New Zealand's future citizens and their ultimate contribution to humanity. The chief cause is lack of purchasing power. To see that children get sufficient and proper food should be the aim of everyone in the community. Although welfare movements are in existence for the betterment of the people there is still need for immediate improvement. To think that in a country like New Zealand, a land literally flowing with milk and honey, the growth of about 55 per cent, of the school children is retarded by malnutrition, and that 20 per cent, are suffering from some form of rickets or other! We all know that rickets is produced through a deficiency of vitamins or an unbalanced diet, and that some vitamin deficiency diseases cause a permanent physical disability which cannot be cured by remedial measures taken at a later age. I would remind Mr. Mazengarb that it is not words that want checking. We have had this for the last four years. I repeat King Edward's, slogan. "If preventible— why not prevented?"—l am, etc., PRACTICAL. [We are not aware of any reliable estimate revealing anything approaching 55 per cent, of malnutrition or 20 per cent, of rickets. The report of the school hygiene division of the Health Department records 5.64 per cent, of malnutrition.—Ed.]