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Otago Daily Times, Issue 15196, 15 July 1911, Page 9

THE DENTAL CONFERENCE. TnE New Zealand Dental Association is to be commended upon the zeal with which it is persevering in its selfimposed and difficult task of educating the public to a sense of the necessity for care of the teeth. The presidential address delivered by Dr Patereon at the annual Conference, which has been held this week at Wellington, was mu?h in the vein of protest against the popular apathy and indifference with which this matter is regarded. It covered for the mxwt part ground that has been traveled before, and that more than once, but the necessity for reiteration on this subject, ■until the campaign against dental disease Ins made much greater headway than it lias yet done, is obvious. The New Zealand Dental Assccia.tion is consistently instrumental in keeping , a high ideal oi the dentists' profession before its members and the public alike. And tho public must recognise tho weight of the authority with which it is instructed as to tile prevalence of dental disease and as to its potency for ill as an agent for physical deterioration. The matter is, indeed, beyond the sphere of argument. Tho common occurrence of dental disease

is simply a fact of everyday life, and I oils concerning which familiarity lias bred a certain amount of contempt. It ia' this -wrong attitude on the part of people i —an attitude shown to be responsible for much ill-health, unnecessary suffering,! and physical deterioration—that has to be combated. Two things are necessary. The public must be educated to know tho meaning of care of the teeth, and it must to afforded facilities for dental treatment over and. above those offered by the private dental practitioner. Progress along these lines in New Zealand has so fai" been slow and perhaps disappointing, but a steady effort to enlighten the community concerning dental disease arid its own duty in the matter cannot but bear very desirable fruit in time. Among the suggestions offered by Dr Patereon with a view to hastening the denial millinnium is the general establishment of dental wards in connection with public hospitals. This is a consummation at which the Dental Association has been aiming for some time, and, though its efforts have been but indifferently ' successful, tho project undoubtedly seems one of the most reasonable and practicable offering itself so, far as it affects the provision of facilities for dental treatment for these whose circumstances arc a barrier to their availing themselves of the services of the private practitioner, '.[lie cduoation of school children respecting the care of the teeth, regarding which Dr Patcrson offers Gome suggestions, might be possible to a limited extent, and be productive of good results, but the additional suggestion that toachors should attend lectures on the subject in order to be the better able to impart their knowledge to their pupils may not commend it/self altogether. The duties of teachers aro almost too multifarious as it is, and patents might not take quite kindly to pedagogic advice on matters concerning their children which, rightly or wrongly, they may consider themselves quite competent to supervise. The most reasonable course for adoption would be that the systematic medical inspection of school children, a scheme for the institution of which has again been tentatively propounded by tho Health Department, should include as ono of its integral features tlie inspection oi the teeth of children. Until medical inspection in schools is an accomplished fact it seems somewhat futile to hope for the institution of any systematic oversight regarding, tho dental welfare of the scholars. The Dental Association may, however, be relied upon to use its influence to impress these points of view upon the Government. A , somewhat arresting statement made by Dr Patereon is to the effect that the Association need not look to the Government for support, since it seams to be doing its best to flood the country with incompetent men—men of a type, he explains further, who think only of the remuneration to be obtained by the easiest and quickest york, quite regardless of the welfare of their patients. Presumably the criticism -has reference to tho passing last session of an amendment to the Dentists Act designed to meet the case of a number of students who were apparently unable to qualify for registration under earlier general legislation' governing admission to tho dental profession, and who consequently craved for the right of admission to the practice of dentistry by what was called " the back door." THE INVESTITURE OF THE PRINCE. TnE investiture, performed this week under conditions of the most happy significance, of the eldest son of the King as Prince of Wales represents the revival of an old ceremony—last witnessed three centuries ago, and then not in Wales itself,-and tradition and precedent \vct9 followed as. faithfully ae possible in tho arrangement of the details. The Castle oi Carnarvon itself, where tho investiture took place, is a pile of great historic interest, and it is linked in a peculiar eonse by legend with tho title which it is regarded as appropriate that the heir-apparent to the Throne should hold. For the story goes that, in the fourteenth century, the Welsh people being unwilling to yield their allegiance to any Prince who was not a- Welshman, Queen Eleanor, the spouse of Edward I, went to the Castle of Carnarvon for her accouchement, and t' at there was '"there born to her a son, whereupon the King, declaring he would name to the people of Wales one " that was borne in Wales, and could speake never a word of English, whose life and conversation 110 man was able to etaine," took the infant and exhibited him to his Welsh subjects from what has since been known as Queen Eleanor's Gate, The tradition respecting the birthplace of the first Prince of Wales is no longer accepted as authentic, but it has been revived as appropriate to the ceremonies of this week, and it was from the identical gate at which Prince Edward of Carnarvon was alleged to Have been exhibited to the Welsh people mora than 600 years ago that Princo Edward was this week presented to the gratified inhabitants of the Principality who thronged to Carnarvon to participate in the celebrations connected with the revival ot an ancient and picturesque ceremony. The Castle of Carnarvon, one of a ring of fortresses I which Edward I caused to be erected in pursuance of the plan he had formed ot bringing North Wales into subjection by the process of armed occupation, is built upon a spur of shaly rock outcropping as a spit at the actual angle made by tho confluence of the Seiont River with the Menai Strait, and it is described as of extraordinary strength. " It must bo remembered," a recent visitor to the historic scene says, " that it was constructed 2CO years before tho adaptation of explosive compounds to the projectile weapons of war. It was, therefore, necessary to make the walls of a fcurtra-s only of such thickness and durability that they presented 110 salients that could be breached or tunnelled by an enemy. Yet, to judge by the massive thickncsscs of Cnmarvon'o curtain, the simple machinery of the thirteenth ccntury must have been considerable and the tenacity of the warrior workmen almost superhuman. Its architects had thought in feet where we should have thought that inches would have sufficed." The ceremony of inveeiiture is at once simple and solemn. The Prince having taken the oath of fealty, which is administered by tho Chancellor of the realm, is presented with a coronet of gold, a golden ring, and a silver aod or sceptre as indicative of princely dominion, and the ceremony is concluded by the bestowal by the King of a ki® upon his son. A religious service, settled in accordance with precedent, was added to the order and form of tho investiture of this week, and it is an interesting circumstance that Noncon-

formist divines were associated with prelates of the Church of England in the conduct of it, while tho presence of a Welsh choir of over 400 voices, together with the band of one of the Welsh battalions, gave to the proceedings another characteristic touch that wan calculated to enhance tho beauty and the interest of the ceremony.