CHRISTMAS SEAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17759, 5 December 1929, Page 5

CHRISTMAS SEAL.

ON SALE SHORTLY.

A MESSAGE OF HOPE.

AN APPEAL FOR CHILDREN. The Christmas Seal, a combined postage and anti-tuberculosis stamp, will be procurable at all Post Offices throughout the Dominion early in December, or a date which will be publicly notified. The design has been completed, but the printing of many hundreds of thousands of stamps necessarily takes some time. Every effort is being made to expedite the issue of the seal. Half of the fund derived from the Stamps will be devoted to the campaign against tuberculosis, including the establishment of health camps for dedicate or undernourished children, or children who have a tendency to contract tuberculosis, or whose sm'roundings may be such as to lead to their contracting the infection. The Christmas Seal movement has been most successful in all the leading countries of the world. Every citizen, even those with the most slender means, can help by placing a seal on his or her lettfer or cards of greeting during the few weeks before Christmas. Each seal means the gift of a penny for a most worthy cause.

several years past articles hav« from time to time been published giving an account of the start, progress and objects of the movement widely known in the leading countries of the world as the Christmas Seal, Which is, as stated, a combined postage and-public health stamp, half oi the funds from which are chiefly devoted to preventive medicine, especially to the furtherance of the antituberculosis campaign. The recommendation . that New Zealand should adopt the system was made by Mr G. McNamara, Secretary of the Pbst and Telegraph Department. As a mean? of assisting in a branch ol public health activity, the proposal received the support of the Health Department. With the approval oi the Postmaster-General- (the Hon. J B. Donald) and the Minister of Health (the Hon. A. J. Stailworthy), and -the endorsement of Cabinet, it has beer arranged that Christmas Seals will be made available. The Minister ol Health has made a strong persona] appeal to" the public to support the movement, which should result in a further improvement in the public health by reducing the incidence ol

tuberculosis, mainly, in the first instance, by the establishment of permanent health camps, medically supervised,, for delicate and undernourished children or children who have a tendency to contract tuberculosis. It is in childhood that this disease usually makes Its first appearance. Sir William Osier, the distinguished physician, in an address to medical men. referring to tuberculosis, said: "The leadership of the battle against the scourge is in your hands. Much has been done; much remains to do. By early diagnosis, and prompt, systematic treatment of individual cases, by striving in every way to improve the social condition of the poor, by joining actively in the work of the local and national anti-tuberculosis societies you can Kelp in the most important and the most hopeful campaign ever undertaken by the profession."