A MINISTERIAL AWAKENING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 201, 4 May 1912, Page 4

A MINISTERIAL AWAKENING.

New Plymouth should be more than usually interested in the news that the long-talked-of medical examination of school children is to be really undertaken by the State, the Minister for Public Health (Hon. J. A. Hanan) having given directions in this regard. While it is possible to prove that the children of Taranaki are in the mass the best developed and' healthiest children in New Zealand, it i» also possible to prove that there are 25 per cent, of school children in this province who need some kind of medical attention. It is especially de-' sirable that careful and periodical medical examination should take place when it is known that the existing school buildings . favor the propagation of many childish complaints. Most people regard childish complaints (and very serious physical defects, too) as matters of inevitability, and there is a curious and persistent and unthinking element in this i town who insist that it is foolish to close schools during periods of epidemics. An examination of Taranaki school children will inevitably disclose the great prevalence of adenoids and other post-nasal troubles. It will be safe, we think, to assert that ten per cent, of the children suffer from this apparently minor trouble which really handicaps a whole life if not attended to. Neither the parent nor the school teacher can detect the presence of complaints in children. The almost alarming prevalence of catarrh hi Taranaki children needs urgent enquiry and treatment. To the unskilled eye many children who may be the victims of impaired senses eye-weakness, incipient deafness, inaccurate olfactory sense, and so on—are believed to be in normal health. There is, too, the appalling badness of children's teeth to be gravely considered, and this will necessarily come under the notice of the medical inspectors who arc to be appointed. As the State can enter into no activity which will return such good dividends of good citizenship (for good citizenship is impossible without good health) it is hoped that the State itself will order compulsory treatment of discovered "cases." That it will discover a very large number there can be no doubt. The Government is to be cordially commended for taking a step that has* been threatened for years, but has gone no further. It is to be noted that parents in the mass have never at any time taken the least interest in this great question—one of the most vital that can be considered. The New Zealand press is not only responsible for calling attention to the necessity of Government medical inspection, but for constantly urging politicians to make a name for themselves by its institution. We have no hesitation in Baying that the careful systematic carrying out of medical inspection of school children will not only remove many handicaps from young lives, but will save many of them. It is to be hoped that parents will convince themselves of the value of the innovation and do all that is possible to help a very necessary scheme. We do not know whether the medical inspectors to be appointed will be empowered to make recommendations in regard to school buildings and their fitness or unfitness, or whether, should they recommend measures in the interest of the health of scholars, the Government will merely "keep the matter steadily in view." This, however, we know: the days of insanitary, inadequate and frankly temporary school buildings should be shortened. If the Government can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds for very much less important buildings it cannot afford to neglect this matter. The child of to-day is the revenue-producer of to-morrow, and the State is imbecile if it refuses to recognise this fact.