H—3l

Dr. Anderson says : In our pre-school work our main obstacles are housing shortages and working mothers. The children are left with relatives or friends, so that they never develop any sense of security and have no one around them with a stable attitude towards them. These environmental conditions are not the whole story, for behaviour problems arise in households where the only cause operating is parental ignorance of correct child care. Our health education activities are meant to help " backward " parents. Immunization against Disease Whooping-cough.—lmmunization is given on request against whooping-cough, and endeavour is made to limit departmental work to the age group 3 months to 2 years. Older children are done for the first time when this age has been passed only on urgent representation of the parent. It is better to restrict this work to the age group at greatest risk. During the year, 4,892 complete courses of whooping-cough vaccine were given, of which 621 were in the older age groups. Typhoid Fever. —Maori children attending primary schools are vaccinated against typhoid and paratyphoid fevers with triple vaccine in the autumn term of each year. During the year, 19,684 children were vaccinated, only 469 of these being below five years of age, the remainder being in the age group of 5 to 15 years. Diphtheria.—There is an apparent falling off in diphtheria immunizations, 29,991 complete courses of prophylactic having been given during the year, as against 66,533 in 1946. The difference is accounted for in a change of incidence in immunizing personnel. The Department has been encouraging private medical practitioners to undertake this work and has supplied prophylactic free of charge for the purpose, on the understanding that practitioners would return to the Department a record of children immunized. The return of records to the Department is done by the minority of practitioners, but the immunizing work is now undertaken by the majority. The result is that our babies and pre-school children are being immunized, but the exact state of protection cannot be stated until better co-operation in the matter of records is forthcoming from the medical profession. Departmental officers immunized a smaller group, therefore, mostly within the younger age groups.

The Medical State or Secondary-school Children For the first time in medical inspection history it became a routine obligation of medical officers to inspect secondary schools. The beginning was in the nature of a trial run, each officer being asked to visit one secondary school and examine the School Leaving Certificate classes only. The response from teachers and parents was appreciative, and this activity will be intensified in the future as staff is augmented.

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Health District. Babies, 3 Months to 1 Year. Pre-school, 1-5 years. School, 5-10 years. School, 10-15 years. | Total. North Auckland 1,281 784 93 1 98 2,256 Central Auckland and Thames1,502 859 99 28 2,488 Tauranga South Auckland 1,352 1,875 1,041 289 4,557 Taranaki 571 628 281 14 1,494 Wellington - Hawke's Bay 1,654 1,976 244 52 3,926 Wellington 1,344 931 804 8 3,087 Nelson-Motueka 304 373 162 48 894 Canterbury - West Coast 906 2,359 1,986 178 5,429 Timaru 156 444 281 184 1,065 Southland 171 982 617 89 1,859 Bast Cape 222 401 415 157 1,195 Otago 527 1,119 230 312 1,661 Totals 9,990 12,131 6,253 1,457 29,911