KING GEORGE MEMORIAL

Evening Star, Issue 22627, 20 April 1937, Page 13

KING GEORGE MEMORIAL

APPEAL FOR HEALTH CAMP FUNDS BROADCAST BY HEALTH CHIEF The Director-General of Health (Dr M. H. Watt), broadcasting from 2YA last night, made an appeal to the people of New Zealand to give their support to the King George V. National Memorial Fund, which is being raised for the purpose of permanent health, camps in the Dominion. The appeal was rebroadcast by the three other main stations. “None of us, will ever forget the spontaneous sorrow which enveloped the Empire in January of last year, when the people lost both a beloved Monarch, and a friend,” Dr Watt said, “ and it would be unthinkable if there were not an equally spontaneous personal response to the appeal for a national memorial worthy of our affection.” Both the Prime Minister (Mr M. J. Savage) and Mr G. W. Forbes, who had already made appeals, had emphasised the, late King’s deep concern for the welfare of his people, particularly the children, and those who had been inspired by his leadership in problems of human welfare had a duty to fulfil in carrying on the work of raising and maintaining the standards of health in this Dominion of the Empire. The form of the memorial had been endorsed by His Majesty King George VI., who had personally inaugurated a camp system for boys in England. These camps would play a vital part in the public health system. Dr Watt continued. Mr Forbes, at the close of his broadcast, referred to the health camp movement as a natural sequel of the -Plunket movement. That statement was true. The fundamental basis of public health was prevention, and these camps were just as essential to the welfare of country children as the children from the towns. The Health Garni) movement was a link in the chain of measures ■ for prevention of disease and active promotion of health. It took the proper line of education of the young, while at the same time it fortified them, and had the additional merit of showing their parents that always good results, and sometimes astonishing results, were produced by simple methods of right living. The time might come when all children would be afforded an opportunity of a stay in a health camp, where they would receive a proper grounding in physical culture and personal hygiene, but for the present the chief concern was to get the movement under way. . “ We are, all’united in two matters —first, in reverence for the memory of King George V.; and secondly, in the earnest desire that the children shall have health and happiness,” Dr Watt concluded. “ These two thoughts are combined in the scheme for our national memorial.”