IN THE DRIFT OF LIFE,

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17687, 16 April 1929, Page 6

IN THE DRIFT OF LIFE,

(3y “ Seeker”)

DENTAL CLINICS FOR ALL. “The Prime Minister (Sir J.osepli Ward) announced to-day that the Cabinet had decided to develop the school dental clinics service so as to apply to all children on the present basis pf standard or age. The work is now confined to children attending public schools.”—Wellington telegram. So at last, it appears, justice is to be done to the children. The late Government, though it expressed its intention of providing free clinics some day for all children of school age, insisted that the service should he extended to the older, as well as the younger, pupils of the Slate schools before any attention was to be paid to even the youngest of those who received their education elsewhere. Parents who paid for their children's schooling instead of taking advantage of the State system were to be further penalised by having to pay dentists’ bills—until some indefinite future date. The announcement from Wellington seems to mean that the discrimination against the pupils of private schools is to he abolished. If they are within the limits of age and grade now fixed they are to be entitled to treatment. It is not clear whether the extended service is to he granted at once. Additional dental nurses will be needed. But it is reasonable to hope that the Health Department will carry out the Cabinet’s decision with all possible despatch: The Catholic,community will be the chief beneficiary of tin's reform. The

“Seeker” does homage to Sir Joseph Ward for not fearing the hostility he might arouse l as a Catholic Premier; also to the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, who presumably acquiesced, notwithstanding the fact that lie is a leader in the Protestant Political Association. Fau* play is bonnio play.

OCCASIONS FOR REJOICING. Besides the decision to give children their rights in the dental clinics there have been many occasions for rejoicing in tiie last few days— A woman lias been appointed to the New Zealand Prisons Board. A woman should have sufficient insight to see that the board should he ended or very radically mended. An anti-Bolshevist paper in Paris tells us that Russia cannot possibly maintain a military campaign—she lacks the money. The same authority will quite likely tell us' next week that the Red armies arc a terrible menace to humanity, but we’ll know better. It's good news, too, that Russia is to be represented at the conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Tokyo this year. T’he Australian Prime Minister (Mr Bruce) advised the Shipping Conference to evolve a scheme to do away with casual labour on the wharves. Why should men whose work is necessarily to a large etxent waiting for a job be condemned to insecurity and possible semi-starvation on that account? To arrange for permanent employment should put an end to at least half the waterfront troubles. Church leaders in England have urged the voters to elect members of Parliament who will do their utmost to find work for all the unemployed. These Churcli leaders have also declared that the electors “must return men and women who will insist that all international disputes, without exception, be referred to arbitration and who will without delay press forward a drastic reduction in armamcn..3. Whv don’t we in New Zealand demand that our Government shall agree to arbitration instead of war? The Labour Party in England has come out more strongly than ever for disarmament. This is splendid, n t onlv for the cause of peace but as an indication that principle still may count for more than expediency in politics—. though rarely. ■ • » •

GOOD WORK. Do the Y.M.C.A. people know what a verv fine work they did at Invercarrrui hy providing camp for inmates of the Borstal institution? To the “Seeker’s” mind, this is the beginning of a grand reform. There have been other attempts—some of them nobleon the part of private people and organisations to give lawbreakers better cnances than they can hope for in prison. But most of the homes established for this purpose have been under lock and key, and the inmates have felt them to be merely another kind of prison. I assume that the boys who were liberated to go to the Y.M.C.A. camp were simply on parole. Why should they not be so, when they are to be restored in time to complete freedom to go about at will in the community? Mr Brasted, national secretary, who was at the camp, says that these young lawbreakers were just the same as any other group, and “we had a delightful time." Why should not this plan be followed far more extensively? People of goodwill and of broad sympathies with their fellow-sinners are not lacking. Let them establish farms and training centres where lads who get into trouble can learn to live and to make their way. The Borstal institutions and State reformatories can never fulflL the purpose, for unfreedom and fear necessarily provide the atmosphere of those institutions. Men and women who have lived long under the regime of fear and who are not permitted to choose for themselves —not even to decide what is the best way to spend twopence—are 1 to that extent unfitted for life in the community. Probation has been almost the only alternative hitherto. It should be far more used than at present, but something more is needed for those youths and girls who have been reared in the wrong associations. Such a camp as that arranged by the Y.M.C.A. Is ail excellent beginning.

THE Y.M.C.A. Why is it that the Y.M.C.A. has fallen * upon evil times? Everyone must recognise its usefulness, if only in providing gymnasiums and healthy evening amusements for young men. It may be that this organisation, like others” that benefited from the wartime boom, has suffered naturally—ln financial and other ways—from the post-war slump. It labours under the disadvantage that its appeal is neither distinctively religious nor distinctively utilitarian. But an institution of tk# kind is undoubtedly needed.