HOLIDAY OVER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20219, 1 February 1934, Page 6

HOLIDAY OVER.

Farewell to Health Camp Girls. SUNLIGHT LEAGUE'S EFFORT. The children of the Sunlight League Health Camp were given a cheery send-off by the people of Okains Bav at eight o’clock yesterday morning. Work ceased at the cheese factory while the manager, who had done so much for the camp, and his white clothed assistants waved the children greetings. Groups had assembled, too, at the store, at the various farmhouses and at the camp to wave farewell. The thirty-two little city girls and the four older schoolgirls from St Margaret’s, Amberley House and the Girls’ High Schools, who had acted as prefects, had certainly made many friends during their month spent amongst the kindly Okains Bay people, who had so generously supplied the camp with eggs, fruit, vegetables and cheese. The little people will be missed, as they have become well known, singing their camp songs after picnics, proudly carrying boxes of mushrooms or exhibiting paua or other beautiful shells for which the Okains beach is noted. The children greatly enjoyed watching cows being milked and daily helped to feed pigs or fowls. They were given a horse ride occasionally, and on one red letter day' the whole camp went for a ride on a waggon drawn by eight bullocks. At one debate in camp upon the advantages of town and country life, the subsequent voting was overwhelmingly in favour of the country. The Saturday night camp fires were enjoyed, not only by the children who acted in them but also by all the people of the neighbourhood, who, by their warm applause, showed how much they appreciated the children’s efforts. One of the health plays and some of the exercise games given over the camp fire will be produced at the Sunlight League garden party which is to be held at “Ham” in March. On the last day the voting for the child who had been the best citizen of the camp took place, and Floris Wadley was elected. At the farewell tea, Mrs Reg Mason, the camp’s fairy godmother, who so ably organised the vegetable supply on behalf of the Okains Bay Women s Institute, presented the prizes for the sports. The second guest of honour was a small girl who arrived with her goat, Jinks, followed by her puppy and carrying a kitten. The other was Mr Hunt, a hale old sailor of eighty-four years, who was looked upon as the grandfather of the camp and who provided the see-saw and put up the swing, and who delighted the children after tea by dancing a sailor’s hornpipe and telling stories about his sailing ship days. On their return to Christchurch, the sunbrowned children were examined by Dr Eleanor Baker-M’Laglan, School Medical Health Office, who wrote the following report:— “I have to-day examined the children on their return from the Health Camp at Okains Bay, conducted by Miss Wilding and assisted by Miss Marion Reese, under the auspices of the Sunlight League. The camp lasted one month and there were thirty-two children. The children have all gained weight on an average of about three pounds each. One child -gained eleven pounds, an average of about onethird of a pound a day! But apart from their gain in weight, the improvement in general health, in vitality, colour and alertness, in actiyity of movement and in more erect carriage is very evident in all cases.”