HEALTH CAMP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26350, 3 January 1947, Page 4

HEALTH CAMP

■ m CHILDREN AT WAIKOUAITI SEVENTY ENTER TO-DAY The fourteenth annual health camp at Waikouaiti will be opened to-day for a period of four weeks. This was the first health camp in the 4 South Island, and is under the control of the Waikouaiti' Health Camp Association. There is now accommodation for 70 children. Fifty of these will be from Dunedin and 20 from Oamaru, thib youngest child being 4$ years and the eldest 12. Sir Patrick and Lady Duff will make a special visit to the camp on January 24, when Sir Patrick will deliver a public address. Both the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, and the Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, have expressed their intention of visiting the camp before it is disbanded. The Waikouaiti camp’s inception 14 years ago was made possible by the generosity of the trustees of the Dunedin Savings Bank and the. efforts of the voluntary organiser and manageress, Mrs Marshall Macdonald, of Wellington, who has been in charge of the camp ever since. There have been many improvements, and the latest—an electric dish-washing machine—is the first to be installed in a health camp in New Zealand. Besides the £1 per week for every child contributed by the Otago District Committee of the Health Camp Federation, generous assistance has always been given by business houses and individuals in contributing goods and financial help. The president of the association, Lady Hutchison, has expressed her thanks to these, donors, and also to the Waikouaiti Racing Club for its co-operation. The value of the work which has been accomplished at Waikouaiti in promoting children’s health was emphasised last night by Mrs Macdonald, who expressed the opinion that more summer camps should be. established in New Zealand. That the value of the work was recognised had been proved by the increased sales in health stamps, she said. “If there were more camps, perhaps the number of children entering our hospitals might decrease,” Mrs- Macdonald said. Two nurses from the Health Department and an officer from the Physical Welfare Department will be in residence at the camp, and it was stated that, despite.' the unfavourable season, an adequate supoly of vegetables would be provided from the association’s own garden.