WAIMATE HEALTH CAMPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21244, 14 January 1939, Page 3

WAIMATE HEALTH CAMPS

Should Children Be Entertained? ( Opinions Differ Should children in health camps be treated to entertainments and motor drives, or would not the aim of the camps in building up and restoring the health of the children be better served by leaving them to enjoy a period of quietness and relaxation? A proposal to take the children now resident in the health camp at Wai - mate for a motor drive to the Waitaki Hydro gave rise to various expressions of opinion from leading citizens who were approached by a “Timaru Herald” reporter yesterday. “It is absolutely against the idea of health camps altogether,” said one man. “It is obvious from a casual examination of the children at the camp that most of them, anyway, are not there because they do not get enough to eat at home. Some of them look pretty fit on it. I should say that many of the inmates are highly strung children and those who are off colour through nervous strain. What’s the sense of giving them further nervous excitement by taking them on motor runs and other entertainment? I understand th»t the Timaru Rotary Club took the children from the northern camp on an excursion to the warship at Timaru. That might show generosity and public mindedness on the part of the Rotarians, but it is misplaced generosity when applied to health camps. Those children want peace and quietness and the fewer distractions they get the better.” “Last year the Health Camp authorities told us that the children were there for rest and recuperation and that they did not want any entertainment or outings,” was another comment. “If they have changed their minds, I think they have taken a wrong step.” “It does'nt matter much. Health camps are a farce in any case,” was the candid reply of another citizen. Health camps, he continued, were supposed to be for undernourished children. If there were any such children in the Dominion it was a shameful reproach to the whole country. Health camps, however, were only nibbling at the problem. What permanent good could it do to take an undernourished child into a camp for about three weeks and then send him back to be undernourished for another 12 months? Many of the children came from good homes which could afford to give them as much nourishing food as they required. Yet the children suffered from malnutrition. How was the root of the trouble, the ignorance of the parents, to be tackled by giving the children' a three weeks’ holiday and allow them again to become victims of the same ignorance? There was a problem an i a big problem before the health authorities, he continued, in guarding the health of the children, but it was not going to be solved by ephemeral health camps. He understood that the idea of health camps arose from the practice in England of providing seaside health holidays for slum children—a veiy laudable object. But the provision ftf health camps under New Zealand conditions with the idea of permanent!v building up the health of children was a farce and a waste of public money, even though it had been raised by patriotic appeal. SWIMMING CLUB Four teams of three competed in the first swim for the Waimate Swimming Club’s silver button, at the municipal baths on Thursday evening. The competition resulted as follows.—Miss N. Parry, D. Wilkes and P. Cairns (go) 1. C. Baxter, R. Baxter and H. Lyall (9sec) 2, A. Morrison, E. Richardson and D. Jones (llsec) 3. Mrs E. Richardson, W. Chapman and B. Hewitt (Usee) 4. MOTOR DRIVERS’ LICENSES The Waimate Borough Council issued 485 motor drivers' licenses up to December 31 last. For the corresponding period in the previous year 432 licenses were issued, showing an increase of 53 for this year. PERSONAL Messrs W. J. Fletcher and S. F. Cox, Willowbridge, have returned from Stewart Island. Miss M. Wilson, Dunedin, who has been spending a short holiday in Waimate, left yesterday for the south. Miss Mary Cox. Willowbridge, has returned home after spending a holiday in Stewart Island and Invercargill. Mr and Mrs Guthrie and family of

Greymouth, are visitors to Waimate ar d are the guests of Mr and Mrs D. Murray, Shearman Street. Dr Barnett, of Napier, who has been visiting his father. Mr A. W. Barnett, of Morven, left for the north yesterday. Mr H. S. S. Kyle. M.P., who was the guest of Mrs E. S. Mills. Innes Street, left for Christchurch yesterday. Mr R. Simmons, of Clyde, formerly of the staff of the Waimate Post Office, with Mrs Simmons, have been visiting friends in Waimate. They left yesterday for the south. Lieutenant L. J. Bridges, formerly of the Waimate Salvation Army, has received word of his promotion to the rank of Captain. He is now stationed at Palmerston South. Mr Horace R. V. Tooley, formerly of Waimate, has received word of his promotion and has been appointed to the Cecelia Whatman Salvation Army Children’s Home, Masterton. Lieut. Tooley, has for the last 12 months been assistant manager at the Salvation Army Workmen’s Home, Dunedin.