FINE PHYSIQUE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 34 (Supplement)

FINE PHYSIQUE

Healthy Citizens Outdoor Activities Since the earliest times every effort has Been made in New Zea* land to foster sane and healthy living, and the result is that to-day the people of the Dominion are second to none in the Empire from the point of view of physique.

In the summer months all New Zealand’s metropolitan foreshores are peppered with basking figures, some of them browned and good to look on for their clear-cut limbs and their natural grace, and others, less fortunate in their physique, perhaps, but just as ardent in their devotion to the great God Sun and his yellow baking dishes that have the blue of the ocean crumbling at their edge. So many of New Zealand's children live near the sea oi spend part of each year there that they might well be described as amphibians, brown and active, growing sturdy bodies and strong constitutions to combat the winter. Every moment in the Dominion there are young limbs active, climbing mountains, kicking footballs, chasing cricket balls, leaping on tennis courts and doing dozens of other strenuous and daring things, sublimating their desire for adventure and working off the restless and unbounded energy of youth. But the development of fit bodies and minds is not an entirely haphazard process. Guiding all tnis desire for exercise and health is a department of State. Creation Of System 'Hie creation of a public health system in New Zealand dates back to 1872, but the present legislation and the activities of the Department of Health have vastly different functions from the enactments of the “seventies.” New Zealand has grown in population and development, and now the main aims of the Department include the prevention of disease, the promotion Y researches, the advising of local

authorities, the organisation of medical, ' nursing and dental services, and general measures for the promotion of ' activities conducive to public health i for all sections of the community. The administration of the Department of Health is conducted under a scheme that has sub-divided the Dominion into eight health districts, each of which is under the control of a medical officer of health, who must be a medical practitioner with special qualifications in sanitary science These officers are responsible for the observance of all enactments and regulations relating to public health. As well as this sub-division into districts the department itself has separate divisions, among which are public hygiene, hospitals, nursing, maternal and infant welfare, school hygiene and dental hygiene. On the staffs of ' these various divisions there are

medical practitioners, nurses and other officers. In 1912 there were three officers whose appointment placed the school division of hygiene on a definite footing. To-day there is a permanent staff of a director, ten medical officers and a large number of school nurses. A great deal of responsibility is delegated to local authorities in the matters of public hygiene and the provision of health services, but the department realises that in a young country their resources may not yet be strong enough to support these requirements adequately, and for this reason the medical officers of health are stationed in various large health districts to act as advisers of local bodies, though they are not actually their officers. The main duties that remain under the control of the central authority are the notification and control of infectious diseases, the quarantine of overseas ships, and securing the purity of food and drugs. This central control Is likely to be maintained till it is thought that the local centres are large enough to manage these affairs economically themselves. Plunket Society The institutions and bodies governing the health services in New Zealand vary greatly in their form, and the fields of work they cover. Public hospitals, private hospitals, industrial societies, ambulance organisations, farmers’ wives’ societies, and war relief bodies all combine and work along the same lines to relieve the burden of ill-health that besets the most healthy communities at all times. Possibly the most utilitarian of these bodies is the Plunket Society, whose aim “To help the mothers and save the babies” has accomplished more than the work of any other organisation in effecting tangible improvements in the life of the people as a whole. The Plunket Society works in conjunction with the public hospitals, the Department of Health, and the Depjartment of Health, and the medical profession in its endeavours to bring its benefits to the mothers and children of all classes in every section of the country. The purpose of the society is not only to give service, but ta educate, as well as give advice, and it Is for the purpose of educating the mothers that the establishment of clinics in the four main centres was achieved. These central clinics, whicn give ante-natal and post-natal advice, have an educational value almost as great as their medical value. A special aspect of the work done by them is the dissemination of “mothercraft” teaching in conjunction with the educational side of the clinics’ work. The scope and comprehensive application of the Plunket Society’s work may be appreciated when it is realised that 71.5 per cent, of the babies oom in the Dominion come under the direct ; supervision of the Plunket nurses, and that the majority of the remainder are | influenced by correspondence and i literature. This fact, considered in the light of the unusually low infantile , mortality rate in New Zealand, is striking proof of the efficacy of the society. ' The percentage of infantile deaths fcr | the last year under review, 1936, vas 3.096, a marked improvement on the previous year’s figure of 3.226. Once the young New Zealander has 1 been safely established in his cradle 1 he is not forgotten, the Plunket ser- . vice does not cease to watch over his welfare till he is at school, and there an equally efficient division of the Health Department takes him under its wing. This is the Division of School Hygiene, which is responsible for the supervision of all measures for safeguarding the health of schoolchildren and for ensuring a satisfactory school environment for them. In The Schools

The arrival of the medical health ; officers at the average primary school is an event that is thoroughly enjoyed by most of the boys and girls, as it is a release from school routine, and there is a morbid joy in boasting that one's tonsils are much worse than Tommy's, and the reading of the strange chart for the eye test is regarded as an adventure that pro-

yokes giggles and squirmings that last for days before and after the event. The medical health officers, however, do not take such a light-hearted view of the work, for the building of strong limbs and sound bodies is a responsible task that has its results tabulated and reviewed by men of figures who are far removed from the excitement and giggling of the exammations themselves, but whose reports are of some consequence. The work of the Division of School Hygiene is having remarkably encouraging results—results that are obtained by the scope and efficiency of its service that reaches over 300,000 children annually. Working with the realisation that medical attention must be available I for every child that needs it, and with the express aim that each child must

get three complete physical examinations during his school life, the Division of School Hygiene has an important duty to fulfil, and its task is greatly simplified by the close cooperative work with the Child Welfare Department of the Education Department. wit. whom it also co-operat?s in matters of school sanitation and design. Children found to be suffering from defects are kept under observation till the necessary treatment is obtained. Financial inability on the part <-f parents does not preclude the children from receiving the treatment that is indicated, as it is the duty of the school medical servicec to see that it is carried out. Apathy on the part of parents is similarly of no consequence, and the child is assured of regular and responsible care through the service provided. Not only does the service see that medical attention is given when required, but extensive work has been done, and is being done, that attends to the wants of ill-nourished and neglected boys and girls. Mentally - backward and feeble-minded -hildren are given special consideration, arrangements being made for their entrance to special schools, special classes, or other institutions as circumstances indicate. This work is being extended to include the examination of the pre-school child, and all children attending free kindergartens are medically examine-’ wherever possible. It is the aim of the service to secure the co-operation of the parents, as it is realised that this is the only way in which the work can be effective. In pursuit of this aim the parents are invited to attend the examination of the children, and this is an opportunity of which the majority avail themselves.

The more recent school buildings have been erected with the importance of light and ventilation uppermost in the minds of the architects, and the result has been a series of attractivelysituated schools that have almost as many windows as they have bricks, and whose rooms are well ventilated without draught. Built with a minimum of waste, the modern open-air schools in New Zealand are similar to factories in which the far-seeing employer has seen that, to promote efficiency, healthy conditions are essential. But in the school sturdy bodies, and not machines, are being assembed, and quick brains are being built to govern them in surroundings that are pleasant and healthy.

Native Population Connected with all social welfare work in the Dominion, the problems of the Native population are ever present, and always receive the special attention which they deserve. The dental health of the Maoris is the responsibility of the medical officer of the district in which they reside, and a close supervision is maintained through the co-operative services of the health inspectors and district nurses. Maori health councils were inaugurated to act in an advisory capacity with respect to matters relating to the health of the Maori In their various districts. The councils consist of seven members of the Maori race and each settlement within a district has its village committee, which works under its respective by-laws under the supervision of the Maori Council. There are 21 districts in the North Island and four in the South Island.

The Maori is acknowledged to be the finest section of the Polynesian races in physique, intelligence and character. The result of their first contact with Western civilisation was deterioration and progressive shrinkage of population, but as a result of steady improvement in sanitary conditions and personal hygiene the deathrate has largely decreased, and the Maori health improved. With a widely-scattered population, the organisation of medical services in country districts is of paramount importance, and in this connection the work of the district nurses is one of the most important adjuncts to the New Zealand hospital system. For the most part these nurses are sent to remote country districts, where their services as nurses and midwives are much sought for, and by means of their work it is hoped to bring the backblocks into more close touch with the hospital system, of which the nurse is the outpost. Cottages are provided for these officers, not for living accommodation alone, but with the addition of one or more rooms which may be utilised for maternity cases, or in which emergency cases can be treated till they can be forwarded with safety to the secondary or base hospital in the district. Health protection and prevention of disease in New Zealand provides services that are used by every section of the people they are not looked upon as answering the needs of an Indigent section of the community, but as the natural facilities and conveniences of the whole population.