HEALTH CAMPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21403, 21 July 1939, Page 13

HEALTH CAMPS

Sir.—l see by this morning's issue that steps are being taken for holding another health camp at Waimate this year, and presumably a similar camp will be held in another centre. I should like to ask just how long we are going to waste good money in this way. It is easy, of course, for the promoters to delude themselves into a comfortable feeling that they are doing an unselfish and worthwhile work and by raising a banner with slogans like,

“The children of to-day are the men and women of to-morrow.” “The health of the children is the health of the nation,” etc., to gain a sentimental following from the public and donations from the public purse. No one will quarrel with the avowed object of the health camps—to build up the health of weakly children—but it has yet to be proved that the camps are having any appreciable effect or whether the benefits are commensurate with the expense incurred. If there are children in this country suffering from malnutrition or in poor health because of insanitary living conditions, the problem will not be solved by a fortnight's holiday, which leaves the children to go back to the conditions responsible for their subnormal health in the first place. Undoubtedly the health camp promoters are face to face with an acute problem, but by staging periodical health camps they are only fiddling with it.— I am, etc., WASTED MONEY. Timaru, July 19.