THE PEOPLE’S HEALTH

Southland Times, Issue 23988, 1 December 1939, Page 3

THE PEOPLE’S HEALTH

BIG HOSPITAL POPULATION It was rather disquieting to find that in a country like New Zealand, with a population of a million and a-half, there was such a large number in hospital, said Sir James Elliott at the annual meeting of the District Nursing Guild of St. John today. In Great Britain, Germany and other countries, he remarked, there had been a great improvement in the physique and health of the people in the last few years. Sir James said he would like to think that that improvement applied to New Zealand, but the fact that so much hospital treatment was required and that there was so much need for district nursing made one wonder if New Zealand was doing all it could. “I suppose any person who reflects wonders if the health of the people is as good now as it was 10 or 20 years ago or in the days of the pioneers,” he said. “I know the district nurses work largely in the more closely-settled parts of Wellington, and I know that the standard of living of many of the people in the congested parts of the city leaves much to be desired so far as domestic hygiene and recreation and diet are concerned.” It was a matter for concern that so many married people were living in one musty room for which they paid a large rent. That must have some influence in increasing the work of the Nursing Guild. Such living conditions might well engender a state of mind so that people were more inclined to spend their money on transient amusements rather than on domestic comfort.