DR. ELIZABETH GUNN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 95, 20 March 1940, Page 13

DR. ELIZABETH GUNN.

RETIREMENT SHORTLY. After 27 years and eight months in the public service, Dr. Elizabeth Gunn, Director of the Division of School Hygiene of the Health Department since 1937, will retire on March 31. She will be given a departmental farewell on April 2. In 1922, when authority for the compu'sorv medical inspection of State schools was placed on the Statute Book, the original staff consisted of two men and two women. One of the women was Dr. Ada. Paterson, who became director of the service in 1933. The other was Dr. Gunn, who was appointed director after Dr. Paterson s death in 1937.

Dr. Gunn’s work on behalf of the health camp movement is well-known. In 1919, Dr. Gunn, then school medical officer in AVanganui, inaugurated the first health camp for delicate children. This camp for CO children was held on the property of the late Air B. P. Lethbridge, of Turakina, and it was with his help and the help of the Wanganui Education Board that the camps which were held in. that district till 1930 were so successful. The health camp movement has since spread all ever New Zealand and, under the aegis of the late Dr. Ada Paterson, a National Federation of Health Camps was formed in 1936. Tin's preserved the voluntary nature of the organisations while ensuring that the available resources were used to the best advantage. A crusade for open-air schools was initiated and fostered by the school medical service. On the recommendation of Dr. Gunn, then school medical officer in Wellington, the Education Department in 1914 granted £192 for the erection of an open-air classroom in the AYcllington South School.