KING GEORGE V.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3892, 21 April 1937, Page 2

KING GEORGE V.

THE MEMORIAL FUND. HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN. At the monthly meeting of the Waipa County Council, the Prime Minister forwarded a copy cf an appeal to the people of New Zealand in connection with the King George V. National Memorial Fund for the permanent establishment of children’s health eamps, and earnestly asked for the cot-operation of the Council to the end that the outcome .of the national appeal would be a fitting memorial to a great King. The chairman (Cr S. C. Macky) thought that as parent local body in the district the Council should make a substantial donation to the Fund, which would help to promote the welfare and health of the children be-, sides being a fitting memorial to a great King.

Cr N. Reid said there seemed to be a danger of over-lapping, as the Power Board had already given a donation and it came in the end from the one source —the ratepayers.

Cr J. T. Johnson said that the health of the children of the nation was at stake. If they could build up their health, it would all be to the good of the community. Local bodies should assist in that direction and V'ould b? quite justified in dbing it.

■Cr F. L. Onion said that the ratepayers in the country areas were not affected to such a degree as those in the towns, the country children having a healthier environment. Still, he thought the Council should contribute.

The chairman moved, Cr Peacock seconded and the motion was carried unanimously that the sum of £5O be voted. HEALTH OF CHILDREN. “A VITAL ASSET.” The Director-General of Health (Dr M. H. Watt) has issued the following appeal to the people of New Zealand in connection with the King George V. Memorial Fund:—• “It is my pleasant duty, both as Director-General of Health and as a citizen to give my support to the King- George the V. National Memorial Fund which is being raised IJorn the purpose of establishing, as a memorial to His late Majesty, permanent health camps in the Dominion. None of us will ever forget the spontaneous sorrow which enveloped the Empire in January of last year when the people lost both a beloved Monarch and a friend, and it would be unthinkable if there were not an eoually spontaneous personal response to the appeal, for a national memorial worthy of our affection. ( “Both the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Mr Savage, and the Rt. Hon. Mr Forbes, who have already made appeals for this national memorial, have emphasised our late King’s deep concern for the welfare of his people, particularly the children, and we who have been inspired by his leadership in problems of human welfare, have . a. duty to fulfil in carrying- on the work of raising and maintaining- the standards of health in this Dornin- j ion of the Empire. The form of our memorial has been endorsed by His Majesty King George VI., who personally inaugurated a camp system for boys in England, and it nc)w behoves us to play our part.

“I wish in this brief opportunity, as a worker in public health, to assure you that these camps will play a vital part in our public health system.

I was very interested to hear Mr Forbes at the close of his broadcast remarks a few nights ago, refer to the Health Camp Movement as a natural sequel of the Plunket Movement. That statement is-true. The greater the development of these camps the greater will be the benefit to the Dominion. The fundamental basis- of public health is prevention, and may I say hero that these camps are just as essential to the welfare of country children as the children from the towns. The camps have catered for the young- people from both urban and

rural areas, and I wish to clear up any misconception that may have arisen on that point. “In the Health Camp Movement we have a link in the chain of measures for prevention of disease and active pre,motion of health. It takes the proper line of education of the young, while at the same time it fortifies them, and has the additional merit of showing their parents that, always good results, and sometimes astonishing- results, are produced by simple methods of right living.

“We have within our grasp very useful means for lessening the future inflow to our public hospitals, by taking children in hand before a constitutional breakdown occurs - before something has developed that the passing- of years and even the best of medical treatment, may fail to stem oi eradicate. If only as a anti-tuber-culosis measure—and it is very much more than that—health camp work lully justifies its existence.

“If a child falls a victim to disease or infection it cannot be taken into a health camp A but is already a candidate for hospital treatment. It is most important, therefore, that means be maintained to enable timely selection of children requiring prior treatment in a health camp and that we have more of these institutions in order to widen their benefit's.

“The time may come when all children will be afforded an opportunity of a stay in a health camp where they will receive a proper grounding in physical culture and personal hygiene, but for the present our chief concern is to get the movement under way. The opportunity is now afforded citizens to contribute towards a national memorial to King George V., and to assist in a practical way towards pioneering a movement that is certain to continue growing and gaining in momentum.

“We are all united in two matters • —first, in reverence for the memory ot King George V., and secondly, in the earnest desire that the children shall have health and happiness. These two thoughts are combined in the scheme for our national memoiial.”