HEALTH STAMPS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6143, 1 October 1945, Page 2

HEALTH STAMPS

CAMPAIGN OPENED ADDRESS BY LADY NEWALL In opening the National Health Stamp Campaign in a broadcast talk last night. Her Excellency Lady Newall, said: It is my privilege to-night to open the National Health Stamp Campaign which starts to-morrow, Ist October. Stamp collectors in their hundreds will rush for two new 1945 Health Stamps on sale at all post offices, and all the more valuable because issued in this year of peace. Thousands of New Zealand men and women who know what these stamps stand for will be pleased to see and use the new design showing “Peter Pan,” the immortal spirit of youth. The colours are gay, with the new feature of two colours on each stamp, the lad green and buff, the 3d cherry-red and cinnamonbrown. “Peter Pan” will always be a symbol of happy youth, and since Sir James Barrie created the famous play, has helped to earn thousands of pounds for the great Ormond Street Hospital for children in England, so it is fitting that this emblem should be equally helpful in Nev? Zealand. What happy places the New Zealand Health Camps are! Well situated in country districts, a dream come true for sunshine leagues, with fresh air, balanced diet, and sufficient rest and exercise, under - wise supervision. Children from every walk of life attend the summer health camps for fis much as six, or at least four weeks during the school and there are permanent health camps already established at Nelson, Gisborne, Roxburgh, Christchurch, and Otaki, with a part-time health camp at Invercargill. There are happy musical games, musical action-songs, folk dances and handicrafts. Children learn to use their ears and eyes to appreciate flowers, birds, trees, and the beauties of New Zealand, which are all too often taken for granted without conscious enjoyment. The spacious dormitories with neatly made single beds, the dining-rooms where plenty of fresh vegetables and salads are eaten with good appetite and good table manners, and the wash-rooms and playgrounds, are models of good habits. Although parents may not visit their own children, I do advise all stamp users to avail themselves of the warm welcome to visitors and to make a point of visiting these communities where His Excellency and I have so greatly enjoyed watching happy children and meeting the health camp helpers. What better way could girls and young women leaving war service spend four weeks than by volunteering for- the various jobs in some of these camps? I suspect that if you love children and have done well in your service you will find scope for you talent at one of the camps, for more of the right kind of voluntary workers are always needed, as the work is continually expanding. It is felt that the health camps make a valuable contribution to happy homes, for impulses rightly directed, habitsof good-temper, of self-control, and of healthy vigour and shouting in their right times and places, together with consideration of others, make for health not only of body but of mind and spirit. So would you, please be sure to use a Health Stamp on all your letters, your Christmas parcels, or ordinary parcels, and on all your Christmas cards ? These attractive Peter Pan stamps will not only embellish what you send, but you yourself will be the better and happier for helping your precious children whose health is the cornerstone of the future strength and population of New Zealand.