WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18190, 24 June 1927, Page 6

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING.

School Clinics. The Minister of Public Health, referring to the school dental clinics, has raised a point which calls for some examination. Recognising, he says, that good health in the individual should be the basic foundation upon which to build a democracy, he points out that the Government can only fulfil its responsibility in that regard in proportion to its resources. From that point of view he considers that the younger school children should receive first consideration. The occasion serves as a reminder that experiments in State Socialism should be carefully studied beforehand with respect to their ultimate tendencies, and the prospective measure of the nation’s commitments. The school clinic, in a sense, is an excursion into the region of State medical services. If, as a matter of public policy, development in that direction is not considered desirable, the limits of the school clinic should be clearly defined. Where should *the State’s selfimposed responsibility cease and the parents’ begin? This is not so much a matter of economy as one of principle. The value of the school clinic is considerable, and public opinion would resent very strongly its discontinuance, from whatever motive. The public should remember, however, that it represents something which, if not provided free by the State, would either have to be paid for or neglected for lack of means to pay. But it does not represent something for nothing. There is no such thing in worldly practice or moral principle. The taxpayer must provide the means. He is justified in expecting that the money be spent to advantage. If the expenditure is to be remunerative in the civic sense, parental co-operation is clearly desirable and obligatory.—“ The Dominion.”