CHRISTMAS SEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 290, 6 December 1929, Page 6

CHRISTMAS SEAL

MESSAGE OF HOPE APPEAL FOR DELICATE CHILDREN The Christmas Seal, a combined postage and anti-tuberculosis stamp, will be procurable at all Post Oftices throughout the Dominion early i n 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 delicate or undernourished children, or children who hive a tendency to contract tuberculosis, or whose surroundings 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 letters or cards of greeting during the few’ weeks before Christmas. Each seal means the gift of a penny for a most W’orthy cause.

For several years past articles have from time to time been published in the Evening Post 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 of the funds from which are chiefly devoted to the furtherance of the anti-tuberculosis campaign. The recommendation that New Zealand should adopt the system was made by Mr G. McNamara, Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department. As a means of assisting in a branch of public health activity, the proposal received the support of the Health Department. With the approval of the PostmasterJjeneral (the Hon. Jas. B. Donald) and the Minister of Healtn (the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy), and the endorsement of Cabinet, it has been arranged that Unristmas Seals will be made available. The Minister of Health has made a strong personal appeal to the public to support the movement, which should result in a further improvement in the public health by reducing the incidence of 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 con. tract tuberculosis. It is in childhood that this disease usually makes its first appearance. Sir William Osler, 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 the poor, by joining actively in the work of the local and * national antituberculosis societies you can help in the most important and the most hopeful campaign ever undertaken by the profession. The following article has been contributed by a medical practitioner who has had largo experience in the treatment of tuberculosis, and who at present is in charge of a sanatorium: —

Is This Suffering Inevitable? The festive season of Christmas is drawing near—the time when our perhaps latent generosity is stirred, w’hen expressions of brotherly love find vent —when peace and goodwill echo throughout the world. Christmas is usually a day of happiness for hospital patients (and not least, we trust, for those in tho sanatoria), where brightness and cheerfulness are eagerly welcomed as a pleasant distraction by those separated so long from their home ties. The end of the year suggests a backward glance and “attendance on a sick bed being a great breeder of reflection,” we find ourselves surveying the situation. We see how this Christmas, as at each preceding one, our institutions are full of physical failures, those who have no chance at present of swimming in the river of life flowing so swiftly along. As we look at the bright, responsive faces of these fellow wayfarers from childhood to age, many questions are suggested to us. Is all this suffering inevitable 1 Is it part of a universal scheme—when did the stumble come for this one—why did it come! Are these people victims of early infection always? Is there some definite nutritional lack at some period of life? Is it to some extent a temperamental error, or purely physical? Is it perhaps a combination of causes?—and so on. What is the future of those who leave our institution? We see those who through necessity have gone on bravely trying to fight a losing game, and others who through want of knowledge have over drawn on their physical capital. We see the Maori race being deplored—their customs clashing with our civilisation. *lie Tubercular Child The germ which is responsible for tuberculosis is familiar to us, and we know the predisposing factor —deterioration ef health which makes tho invasion of that germ possible in the human body. What is tho solution of this, one of the world’s most urger.t problems? Charles Dickens, immortal novelist, has portrayed for us the tubercular child in all its pathos for us. Who cannot call to mind little Nell, Paul Dombey, and Tiny Tim, gentle, lovable physically ineffectual, each in different circumstances trying bravely but feebly to pursue his way through life, yet ea<}h a misfit to his envirc v ment. The literary genius could create the picture—it is left to this and each succeeding generation to ensure for every child a healthy and joyous existence.

All great reforms have been brought about by a consideration of existing error. In New Zealand our efforts towards the betterment of children have been based on an appreciation of adult misery and suffering, the foundation of which has been laid in childhood. In the last twenty years much has been accomplished along health lines. Infants and children have been rescued from errors in feeding, clothing, and hygiene, and bodily defects corrected. Dress has been revolutionised, and women at any rate have dispensed with heavy, tight clothes, allowing access of air and sunlight to the surface of the body, stimulating and reinvig-

orating it. People have learned the value of frosh air in their homes. . “Symbol of Help” The obviously sick will we trust always claim the world’s sympathy and help, but it requires courageous hope to face the prevention of disease, radiated by that vision without which we are told a people perish. There are not wanting agencies U) holp stumbling humanity along the road; surely the people of New Zealand can add a united effort to raise a fund to provide measures for stamping out tuberculosis, which in the light of our present-day knowledge we regard as a preventable disease, but which for so long has been regarded as the scourge of mankind. The Christmas Seal has come as the visible symbol of that help. By its effort it is hoped, among other considerations to bring into existence rest homes for debilitated children—that is potentially tubercular children. Apart from the protection of the child from early infection, we know that nu. trition is the most vital problem we have to consider. It is a social and an economic question. We trust that these rest camps will be a practical illustration of how to live. Other countries are keenly alive to the preventive aspect of tuberculosis in its manysidedness. Let us not lag behind in our effort to do what is humanly possible, and at this season of the year to remember those words which have rung down the ages: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto Me.