CHOICE OF A MEMORIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 12

CHOICE OF A MEMORIAL

No more fitting memorial of the service rendered to the people of the Empire by the late King George V during his twenty-five years' reign could have been chosen for New Zealand than the creation of a' fund for the permanent 'establishment and maintenance of children's health camps, proposed by the Government, according to an announcement by the Prime Minister ■ on Saturday. The King himself lhrougboi.lt his reign, as Mr. Savage pointed out, always felt a sympathetic concern for the health and recreation of his subjects, and the general committee of the King George National Memorial Fund in Britain clearly recognised this interest of his late Majesty by its appeal for fluids to provide "King George's National Playing Fields",all over the country. For this purpose a'large proportion of the publicly subscribed Jubilee Fund has been allotted. In appealing for support Mr. Baldwin,1 in a broadcast speech in June last, said:

Everyone who is interested in the welfare of the young people and the children of this country, interested in their development, in their health and in their happiness, knows what need there is for space in which games can be played of all kinds, organised and jusf among the children themselves, where they can have their own spaces and can be free' from the everincreasing dangers of our roads.

In crowded Britain, with its large cities and built-up areas, the need for .playing fields has become ui'gfent, if the population, especially iho. young, is to attain any satisfactory standard iof health. The case in New Zealand is not quite the same and, while there is scope for play areas for children in the cities, the health camp has been found to serve a different and yet just as useful a purpose. The aim of the health camp is to give a chance to those children who, through one cause or another, show signs of being physically handicapped by ill health or inadequate development. For these children the health camps established in recent years have proved an immense boon, and nothing would please the people generally more than to have the camp system extended and enlarged, where necessary, and placed in a satisfactory financial position by the creation of a permanent fund to which all could subscribe. Such a fund the Government proposes to inaugurate at an early date with a substantial contribution and to use all departmental machinery to help in the appeal to the people. Appeals with this object in, the past have not been in vain, the' Health stamp issue being one of the most sucpessful, and it is a good suggestion on the part of the Prime Minister to issue a special Coronation stamp to augment the fund. The health camp movement has been one of the most genuinely helpful contributions to social welfare for a number of years and we feel sure the public will welcome the opportunity of assisting in making the camp a permanent institution.