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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 76, 6 May 1914, Page 6

Dr Blackmore's eloquent appeal yesterday on behalf of children threatened with or affected by consumption' was supported by some tragic evidence. The Sanatorium superintendent is convinced that an open-air home for those little

ones whose environment from a health point of view is a distinct menace, should be established as an annex to the Cashmere institution, and the figures and facts he submitted to the meeting called to discuss the proposal bespeak a thorough investigation of a grave matter. An expenditure of £4500, Dr Blackmore estimates, would provide the necessary accommodation and provision for from thirty to forty children. This means that, with the Government subsidy of 24/- for every 20/- contributed by the citizens, it would be necessary to raise a little over £2OOO. The need for extending the facilities of the treatment of tuberculosis to include special provision for affected children was outlined with unmistakable emphasis by the superintendent, who gave proof that consumption was what is known as a house disease. As he pointed out, the children of poor people are severely handicapped in the battle for health by the comparative poverty of the parents. Such poverty is accompanied by mean housing, which includes ill-ventilated rooms and the resultant lack of fresh air. It is the aim of those interested in the scheme to remove the young folk from such deleterious influences; to give the youngsters either predisposed or in contact with sufferers from tuberculosis a chance of building up their constitutions in happier and more healthful surroundings, ft is a sane enterprise of marked social value, and we hope that the appeal for funds will be generally recognised wherever it is made. For there are so many children who at present lack the chance they ought to have.