HELP TO PROMOTE HEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

HELP TO PROMOTE HEALTH

THE CALL OF CHARITY STAMPS. (Contributed by the Department of Health). Although the records of school medical work in New Zealand show that in recent years the children of the Dominion have improved in general health and physique, at the same time school doctors and nurses come across a number of children suffering from malnutrition and conditions the forerunner of ill-' health and disease. For the purpose of treating these undernourished and physically retarded children they have been accommodated in health camps under skilled supervision. As a stimulus to growth, as an educative principle, and as a regulator of the nervous system the existence of these camps has proved invaluable, and their permanence would be a boon to many delicate children who require consideration in regulating their physical output of energy and eliminating undue fatigue. A great improvement in physical and mental vitality of the children composing the health camp is always a striking example of the benefi L to be derived from the simple routine which provides those facilities for health, fresh air, sunlight, correct food, rest and exercise.

During the next few weeks the public havq an opportunity by purchasing the Charity Stamp on sale at all post offices throughout the Dominion to assist in an effort to provide health camps for the protection of children liable to tuberculosis, and as indicated on the? stamp “help to promote health.” The double cross which is included in the design of the stamp has served throughout the ages as a symbol bf struggle for ideals, high thinking and a better world, -and was selected as an international emblem in 1902, under which different people should unite in peaceful strife against the scourge of humanity constituted by tuberculosis. The double cross is now an emblem in more than 35 countries of the war waged against tuberculosis. By purchasing these stamps at 2d' each a person is assisting to transform an ailing, sickly child into a robust, happy cue, and what endeavour could be more worthy 1 How can wo possible reap greater and more lasting benefits than by protecting our children from tuberculosis and diseases that handicap them in the battle of life.

We are told by an eminent authority that on the whole the best children physically are the best children mentally, and a sound educational system is not dependent in childhood on improved methods of education only but on a body nurture, on a better feeding, on nervous control and regulation, and on a steady growth of bone, muscle or brain. The educational and health authorities in New Zealand aim at turning