HEALTH SERVICE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10728, 27 October 1928, Page 10

HEALTH SERVICE

SHOULD BE UTILISED

GREATER HAPPINESS CERTAIN TO FOLLOW.

(Contributed by the Department of Health). ' -

Professor F. G. Parsons, F.RXIS., F.S.A., a few months ago delivered a. presidential address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association at Leeds, his subject being “The Englishman of the Future.” As a: contrast to the gloomy prophecies of some modern pessimists, it is refreshing to note Professor Parsons’ well-considered and confident belief that the British people show a sure progress not only in their increasing freedom from physical defect, but iu improved general physique and stature. He attributes this advance in physical well-being largely to the development of a public health conscience which, working through maternal and child welfare organisations, in recent vqyrs lias given opportunity for health, to masses of people who previously lived under conditions of hopeless squalor, poverty and neglect. “It may be objected,” - states Dr. Parsons, “that this study of child welfare has been going on throughout the ages, and is by no means limited to the last hall-century or a little more; but the point which I wish to make is that rational knowledge, based upon experiment and observation, could only have spread after medical men themselves began to learn scientific fact.sk and to teach them to those- who were able and willing to understand them. It is this way that each year the younger generation is brought up a little more sanely thau its forerunner, and each year, too, the healthier influences push their way a little lower into the social scale.* Now we have reached a stage in which the poorest child of the slums may be, and often is, watced ovez - by the child welfare and almoners’ departments of our great hospitals long before it is born, and if its parents' be uni too stupid, may throughout its life enjoy very nearly - the same healthy surroundings uul quite as much skilled medical advice a.». its richer brethren, save that we cannot yet give it the amount of air it needs in which to sleep healthily, or free from the results of the ignorant mid thoughtless cruelty of uneducated parents. Another generation or two must pass, and these things also will cease to he. 11 is grievous to think that the hardest task of all is to give these poorer children their proper shave of pure night air) that deadly terror of our forefathers. ,So long as slum areas and overcrowding last it is hard to see how this may be done ”

BU.UOOL MEDICAL INSPECTION

In this young and vigorous countrv wo enjoy as yet comparative freedom from many of (he grave social and economic problems met with ill older lands. AYo have thus a wider opportunity' for progress and. can feel a more secure faith in measures for the improvement of the general welfare.

Here. too. we have evidence ol an advance in the general health and physique of.the inhabitants. The records of the school medical service for the last fifteen years, for instance, show that the New Zealand children of to-day are not only taller and heavier than they were fifteen years ago, but suffer to' a less extent from physical defects.

While we have, not the extremes ol poverty, and riches to he found m older lands, there is probably no other country in the world to-day where the" average well-being of the people is equal to that found here, li is a well-established fact that in New Zealand the. average length of life is greater than known anywhere el.-c in the world.

M'u should see that our . living and working conditions are such that this increased longevity is accompanied by additional ' vigour, happiness and efficiency. Toward this end we urge that the health service of the country should he utilised to the fullest extent. Par-, cuts are especially recommended to attend the medical examination of tliij’ children at school and *o obtain, the benefit of the advice of the School Medical Officer. By this means they are assisted in securing for their little ones the incalculable benefit of that wise nurture which rotifers not only freedom irom physical delect but positive health and vitality. ,