GERMANY'S EXPANSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8181, 12 July 1906, Page 3

GERMANY'S EXPANSION.

Prima Bulow said no mora tbau the troth when in the Reichstag reoeDtly he attribated the expansion of Germany's industries and oom- > merae in large measure to the skill, capacity, and intelligence, of the working and artisan olasses, and in turn regarded these qualities as a crowning prooi of the wisdom of the social reform laws wbioh have been passed daring the last quarter of a century. And now Germany is TAKING TO HEART another and a deeper truth. It is that the child is tbe father of the man, and that physical and mental efficiency, upon which industrial efficiency wholly depends, can only be ensured with certainty when care is tatcen TO X3UARD TBE HEALTH of ohildhood and youth. That is the meaning of the crusade against - : disease and debility, both of body JT and mind, which is now being oar- * ried on in the elementary dohoole, and of tne passion for "school hygiene" which has taken possession of professional AND LAY EDUCATIONISTS in every part of the oount'-y. By school hygiene in tbe modern sense, however, is not merely meant, a more or less sanitary condition of school buildings and school arrangements. That was the old idea, ajjd up to a COMPARATIVELY RKOENT DATE it was deemed adequate. Efficient school hygiene implies to-day the careful medical oversight of the scholars as well, an oversight beginningwith tbe very day of their registration upon the school roll, and continuing ALL THROUGH THMIR SCHOOL LIFE, . class by class, until the time, comes when they pass into the world, bearing for God-speed ■ t'»e best advioo upon the important csllina which the school doctor's knowledge of their physical and mental faculties and limitations can saggest.