NATION LOSES MILLIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

NATION LOSES MILLIONS.

DISABILITY OF DEAFNESS, -i IMPRISONMENT OF THE MIND-- J It is estimated that the annual Ids# caused by deafness in England is £7,000,000, declared the fifth report of. . the National Institute for the Deaf. . -The wastage of human happiness due to the imprisonment at mind and soul could not be told, but these losses constituted the highest appeal for whatever reliei might be possible. The work in Vhich the institute is engaged includes the founding and equipping of a home for g deaf women in the North cf England, £ airid, jointly With the National Institute fcirths Blind, the education of infant twins w bora both blind and deaf. Other urgeas requirements are coming* into view, among them provision for the higher education- : and - further technical training of the deaf; for the industrial training and care, when necessary, of deaf youths and girls; and for the improved care of the defective deaf. The Executive Committee to the council of the institute, having concluded their inquiry into the industrial position of the £3 deaf a&d dumb, have no hesitation ia {y, stating that the effects of the large expenditure on the education of such children since 1893 have, as regards the general elevation of their industrial status as adolescents and adults, been largely neutralised by circumstances in post-school life. While not attributing this to any % lack of effort on the part of the schools or the welfare societies, the committee urge that certain legislation affecting r; wages and national insurance schemes, designed for the equal advantage of every £ worker, operates adversely to the deaf, §g while the regulations of trade bodies ia several industries effect them similarly. ■ The report concludes with the hope thai the increasing public knowledge of the ills and needs of deafness will result ia a cor* responding improvement in funds for the purpose of expanding the work in the 'IS cause of those who need it sc much.