YOUNG NEW ZEALANDERS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 184, 21 July 1911, Page 11

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDERS

b.MBYRO SOLDIERS FACE THE DOCTORS. .MEDICAL TEST DISCLOSCRES. T' • examination, <-f Territorial., and cadets is proeeetiii.sr apace at- the barttson Hall. Buckle street. For the last eight nights an average <»f two hundred to three hundred liable to service under the new defence scheme Lave n examined. I p to the present s<>m< I • boys and youths have submitted themselves to the metical test, the percentage of passes being on the whole very satisfactory. Much active work D still before the doctors, who will be kept busy almo-t nightly for the next three week, examining the remainder of the 47i’mi enrolled in the Wellington area, in addition to i-Vrt who are on the rolls in the Hutt and Johnsonville area. The members of the New Zealand M-dita! Corps on duty every night at- the Garrison are Colonel Purdy (director). Lieutenant-Colonel Begg. P.M.0.. < aptains Holmes, Harty, Ross, and Elliott.

There is much to interest the observer in the work that is now going on in the Drill Hall. The boys summoned for each particular night form in a long line. Their merry chatter and noise whilst awaiting their turn does not- indicate they are fearing anything. Their first introduction is the weighing room, to which they . gain entrance in squads, and where their measurements are taken. Then the colourtesting of the eye. and, stripped to the buff, in groups of half-a-dozen they file into the examining room. Here the process of examination is rapid but very complete, and the boys soon know their fate. It is too early to give any definite figures in regard to the actual causes of rejection, because so many have yet to present themselves before the doctors, but some phases of the results are interesting to recon! as bearing on the physique of the average New Zealander. He has bad teeth, to begin with. This defect, however. is not counted in the rejection as would be the case for admission to

the Army at Home. Most of the Gads have teeth missing. Some are very bail in this respect. Amongst the Territorials there have been rejections for heart failure, that is, in ages ranging from eighteen to twenty-one. On Monday night 3 per cent, were declined on that account, though, of course, when the general average is completed, this percentage may be reduced. But what strikes one in viewing the lads of fourteen and over, as they stand before the doctor with their chests and backs bare, is the large number afflicted with rickets, due to deficient nutrition in early childhood . Some of the little fellows last night presented deformed chests that were a very sad sight. One medical officer consulted, “Bad feeding—artificial food.” What’s the remedy’ “Phj'sical drill will cure a good deal of that,” he replied. "and the cadet course provides for physical culture.” Many of the boys looked as if they had never handled a pair of clubs or dumb-bells. They looked, too. as if in childhood they had never had a fair chance. Now grown to fourteen and sixteen, their physical appearance tells a tale of early neglect. Chests want expanding, want strengthening by systematic training : in fact, general physical development needed. Here is one aspect of this terri-torial-training system which should appeal to parents. If the system develops that long line of weakchested boys, strengthens their physique by compulsorily making up for parental negligence in the days of childhood, in this respect alone it will have done something towards creating a decent race of young New Zealanders.