CHILD WELFARE

Patea Mail, Volume XLIV, 26 July 1920, Page 2

CHILD WELFARE

NEW DEPARTMENT PLANNED DR. TRUDY KING TO DIRECT CAMPAIGN GOSPEL OF HEALTH FOR THE YOUNG In opening the conference of the .Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children rcccnty, the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister of Public Health) said : “I am interested in the Plunkct movement as Minister of Education because it concerns the child in its earliest years. A new era has dawned for preventive medicine. I wish you would all read the report of Sir George Newman (Chief Health Officer in Great Britain) to Dr. Addison on this subject. What do I moan by preventive medicine ? In a word, I mean preventing disease by education as opposed to curng it with a bottle of medicine. No modern State system is of any use unless it has a branch for educative and preventive medicine. We must aim at giving our children strong, healthy bodies, capable of the strongest possible resistance against disease. If we can do this we can largely eliminate our medical school inspection and free dental treatment. These things then would not bo necessary. “I say I am interested as Minister of Education. If you were to see the reports that I got from the school medical officers, you would be surprised at the large percentage of children —oven hi this favoured community—who arc suffering from bad teeth, and all sorts of disorders, due largely to malnutrition and neglect in the earliest years. Not one in seven children in some schools have sound teeth. This evil is almost entirely due to malnutrition in infancy. These arc the children who survive the

n fancy period. What about the children that die ? Do you know that 'hiring the war period nearly 15,000, 59 ■ier cent, died in the first year after birth. I am sure that many of these deaths arise from prcvcntible causes. Again look at it another way. We spend liree million pounds per annum in educating the children from the ages of 6 to 16. We hardly spend a pennypiece on the period from 1 to 6, when we ought to be looking to the health of the child. What is the result ? Prom the figures of the inspectional reports we sec that a large number of our school children are not in a fit state of health to get the fullest benefit from the education we give tfiem at so great an expense to the State. The figures a England arc even worse. A recent "cnsus showed that over one million ■hildren in Great Britain were physicilly unfit to benefit adequately from State education. I am afraid that the pre-school period is treated as a period if ignorance. Many young mothers do tot know how to bring up children. .Many others are careless and indifferent and the results are seen to-day in having so many young people who arc only fit for a C 3 camp. “Now I come to the remedy for these evils.. The remedy is the creation of a bureau, or department, of child welfare. This is not an expensive matter. It is a matter of education and lectures and propaganda. Wo want a capable man (o go through the country and preach the gospel of health to mothers and expectant mothers and young people. We want the halls to be filled with fathers ■.ml mothers of young children, to be ;aid the simple truths and principles of physical health. After all, the health T our young people is the greatest of all our interests. Now, can we get a man with the necessary enthusiasm to direct this campaign and launch this Department of Child Welfare 1 I think wo can. The man is with us, as well •is the hour. Dr. Truby King is the man for this job. I should tell you that I have already asked Mr. Massey th« Finance Minister, to spare him from his present work so that he may become director of this Department of Child Welfare. It rests with the Prime Minister. Ho will decide. I believe he will help us. Wo must conquer ignorance by implanting the knowledge of mother-craft and infant development in the breasts of our girls and womenfolk. If we can do this I feel assured that you will achieve important results. First. —We will sensibly reduce the present death-rate by saving the lives of hundreds of children who now die from ignorance. Second.—We will decrease and minimise the cost of'inspecting and treating our school children for bad teeth, adenoids, rickets, etc., from which today they so prolifically suffer.

Third.—We will reduce the huge cost of hospitals, because fewer peo-

ple will need them. Fourth. —Wo will double the working power and effectiveness of every

citizen. Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I make no apology for introducing this great question to your notice, because it is an opportune time for me, as Minister of Education and Public Health, to indicate that the policy of the State must be directed much more intimately and forcibly to the preservation by preventive medicine of the welfare of tho child and its mother.”