PHYSICAL STANDARD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22165, 19 July 1935, Page 12

PHYSICAL STANDARD

"NOT B GRADE PEOPLE" REPLY TO AUCKLAND DOCTOR [bt telegraph—OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday "Exaggerated nonsense" was the term applied by a phblic health officer whose attention was called to a statement made in Auckland by Dr. E. B. Gunson that New Zealanders are physically a B grade people. He suggested that the soundest criteria -were the mortality statistics and the expectation of life, in respect of which New Zealand had an enviable world record.

The Health Department's figures relating to the examination .of 51,000 children, on which the Auckland criticism was based, classed as physical defects such points as uncleanliness, while dental caries accounted for 18.36 j>er cent and enlarged tonsils for 12 per cent of the total physical defects. Mild defects causing round shoulders totalled 14.37 per cent, while, on the other hand, tuberculosis conditions were found in only .07 per cent of the children. Nervous defects totalled .4S per cent..

Now Zen land school children had boon subjected to official height and weight tests since 1013. the results showing a steady advance in both respects during the 20 years. The only exact corresponding data available related to the children of Toronto schools, •who, while close to the New Zealand juvenile physical standard, were not quite equal.