WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17881, 24 June 1926, Page 8

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

Dental Services for Country. Dental treatment for school children in country districts is one of the essential public services which it should be the earliest object to extend. How to prevent, or at least lessen, the drift of people from the country to the towns is a problem that is giving deep concern to all men and women who value the welfare of this dominion. It must be obvious that one of the practicable means lying to our hand is to extend to country districts as many as possible of the facilities enjoyed by the towns. At the last meeting of the New’ Zealand Council of Education the opinion was expressed that better provision should be made to ensure that countrv children should have extended to them the benefits of dental treatment which city children now' enjoy. That the proposal is not a new one is made clear by recalling the fact that during the time the Hon. J. A. Ilanan was Minister of Education he placed votes on his Estimates to provide for dental officers and motor ambulances visiting country districts and remote localities, so that children should have the benefit of dental treatment at their own schools, which otherwise, in most cases, would be unobtainable. In a memorandum which Mr Ilanan submitted to Parliament on the subject of “Education Progress,” he stressed the need for action being taken to provide means in backbloek districts to promote the health of children. The alarming state of affairs disclosed by Professor Pickerill in his recent able and thought-compelling address on the appalling condition of . our children's teeth makes it the duty of the State to ensure that preventive measures are adopted as far as possible to check such a menace to national health and public well-being; and the rights and interests of country children in this connection must not be overlooked.—“ Dunedin Star.” Maoris Increasing. An interesting fact disclosed by the Census results is that the Maori population is increasing almost as rapidly as the European. The European gain since last Census is 10.68 per cent, and the Maori gain 10.17; but the difference in favour of the European is pro bably more than accounted for by immigration. Possibly the natural increate is higher among the Maoris than among the Europeans. It was apparent some years ago that the Maori had won in the battle wdth civilisation, and that the decline in numbers had stopped. Now the tide has definitely turned, and the Native population is growing. There is all the more need, then, for giving prompt attention to the urgent request of Mr Ngata and those who have worked with him that the Maori shall be assured of land for his present and future needs. The Maori race is finding its way of salvation on the land, and it would be lamentable if the process were checked because too much of the Native land had been alienated.—“ Post,” Wellington. An Unnecessary Practice. New Zealand is the only country in the Empire in which the practice obtains that was observed last week, of an adjournment of Parliament at the beginning of a session, as a mark of respect to the memory of former members of the legislature whose deaths occurred during the recess. The fact that no such practice is followed in any other British Parliament might well induce a consideration by the Government of the question whether it is desirable that it should be continued in this country. Not even is the business of Parliament not interrupted in other portions of the Empire by an adjournment as a tribute to the past services of deceased ex-members, but it is not usual to record by formal resolution an expression of the value of those services. There is a patent artificiality about the mortuary oratory in our own Parliament, when, as sometimes happens, members are invited to express their sense of sorrow concerning the death of some member. Of the early days of whom not one of them lias any personal knowledge. Rarely, moreover, is there any impressiveness about the proceedings on occasions of this sort. It is a different matter, entirely. when a vacancy is created in Parliament, through the death of a sitting member. It is only the deaths of distinguished statesmen that are the subject of resolutions in the House of Commons. —“Otago Daily Times.” The Prime Minister's Task. Mr Coates faces his second Session as Prime Minister in circumstances which present a remarkable contrast to those of his first. When he took charge twelve months ago it was as the choice, not of the people, but of his party. He took over the goodwill of the fallen leader and was mainly concerned to carry out that leader’s policy. This week Mr Coates appeared before a new Parliament, not as a Prime Minister by accident or delegation, but as the direct choice of the people. Oddly enough, one of his chief troubles now is that this choice has been expressed with too flattering an emphasis. A leader has to make every post a winning post because he cannot be sure that the loss of any particular one may not represent the casting vote which turns victory into defeat. If Mr <‘oates -had not played to win he might well have lost, and the size of his majority is all to his credit. But the fact remains that it is too large, to be comfortable, and tile discomfort which the Prime Minister must have fully appreciated during the recess, especially in the throes of Cabinet-making, is bound to become more embarrassing as the session proceeds. It is not from his political enemies, bxit fr6m his friends that Mr Coates will need to be saved.— •' Post, W ellington.