BOYS OF TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1937, Page 8

BOYS OF TODAY

BETTER PHYSIQUE

WHAT POST OFFICE RECORDS SHOW ,

That, the physique of the youth of today is better than that of ten and twenty years ago is suggested by the records of both the British and the New Zealand Post Office. The principal avenue of entrance into the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department is through the; position of message boy, and in the staff now totalling nearly ten thousand, the great majority are able to take pride in the fact that they have graduated from that position. Records of the height and weight of message boys appointed to the Department are available over a long series of years, and when the British Post Office recently published some valuable data regarding the improvement in the physique of candidates examined by its medical service the opportunity was taken of making a similar survey from the New Zealand rer cords. This amply supported the British view that the boys of : today are of a better physical class than those of. ten and twenty years ago. From the notes kept of all candidates for entrance to the British Postal Service, an interesting series of comparisons was made possible. An unselected, consecutive series of 200 London boys of sixteen years of age seeking employment, from the same sorts^ of families and districts, was -compared with a similar series of 200 London boys of the 'same age, who were examined 25 years previously. The present-day boys were found to weigh, on an average, 161b a boy more, and to be 1| inches taller, than those of the previous generation. A similar comparison between unselected, consecutive groups of 200 girls of 16 years of age, examined five years ago and 25 years before that, showed that the girls of today weighed on an average 101b a girl more, and were an inch taller, than the girls of the last generation. COMPARISON WITH 1917. Following as closely as possible the basis'of the English comparison, the New Zealand Post. Office medical reports were" examined, a consecutive series of 60 boys appointed early in 1917 being compared with a second series appointed ten years later and a further 60 appointed from April ■ till December, 1936. Their ages varied between 14 years 10 months and 15 years 2 months. It became clearly evident from the medical reports that the boys of 1936' were better in physique than those of the two previous periods. Of 60 boys engaged in 1917 only 15 exceeded sft 6in height though in 1936 26 were above that standard. In weight also the latest ffih of records showed that 56 o the 60 boys in 1917 were less than 9 stone but in 1936 only 38 were found to-be below that weight. The general result of the comParls, on, e, 1™d,.i^ conclusion to be reached that judgmg by applicants for positions m the .New Zealand Post Office, tW P^enWay boys wefch on an average 131b more than those of ten years ago and 191b more than those of 20 years ago boys of today in the matter of height were found to be on the average 2.1 inrhes taller than those of 1927 and 1.6 inbhes teller than their predecessors 0fri917.. .. ■" :'■;..;,