MILK IN SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 244, 12 September 1935, Page 2

MILK IN SCHOOLS.

NATIONAL BASIS URGED. Per Press Association. HAMILTON, Sept. 10. Speaking at the Rotary Club today Dr H. Bertram (Rotorua) held that the existing milk conditions were shocking. “They are things to be ashamed of,” he said, ot the farms from which our milk supply originates should be '» e must give pure milk.” . A motion was carried expressing the opinion that the scheme of distributing milk in schools should be instituted on a national basis throughout New Zealand. The Government was urged to support the scheme, as it was considered that the expenditure on the milk ration would be well rewarded bv the savings that would result in the upkeep of hispitals. Dr Garfield Stewart said it was surprising to realise that in New Zealand the annual consumption of milk was only about 28 gallons a head a year, compared with 56 gallons in Denmark. The demand was a third of what it ought to be. He felt convinced that if each child received a pint of milk a day many of the disabilities of crippled children would be eliniinated. Extensive experiments carried out in England and the United States showed "that the nutriment of milk was not affected by pasteurisation and the digestibility of milk was considerably increased. Dr Bertram said that on account of the full and mixed diet of New Zealanders milk did not play such an important part as in other countries, but it was unquestionably essential for children. One reason for the fact that there were undernourished young people in New Zealand was that there was an insufficient supply of milk. How could a man earning £2 or £3 a week feed, clothe and house his family? There was, of course, also the question of insufficient knowledge, which should be met by the education of those mothers who fed children with all sorts of rubbish. At the Rotorua High School during the winter the pupils were given a daily cup of hot milk, a scheme which had a marked effect. A great number of crippled children would not have been so affected had they received a more adequate supply of milk, or purer milk. Many crippled children were tubercular. What did £75,000 mean if the building up of a healthy, virile people was to be the result?