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66
With regard to the education of children in elementary schools this
subject has been before most of the health officers during the last
year. We are decidedly of opinion that a child under the age of five
years should not be allowed to attend school. We are also of opinion
that children in these elementary schools are being taught a multitude of
abstruse subjects which are positively harmful to their proper education,
and many of which subjects might with advantage to the intellects of the
children be discontinued. Brain fag in children is a well recognised
complaint, and due largely to the system of education now in vogue.
With regard to the underfed children attending school the opinion is
strongly held that the aid of the State should only be called in after all
charitable resources have been exhausted. I should like to acknowledge
the good that is being done in this direction by the Rev. Canon Horsley
and others working on the same lines. With regard to the food of the
people in the poorer districts, this is often found, if not distinctly prejudicial,
to be unsuitable in character. The varied dietary of the well-todo
classes in this country is acknowledged to be the best in the world.
In no other country is food so excellent nor so cheap. A wholly vegetable
and fruit diet may be found beneficial for those taking little physical
exercise, but for the man who has to undertake heavy, or even moderate
labour the ordinary mixed diet is by far the best. The poorer classes in
regard to food are very wasteful both in the purchase and in the cooking
of it. They do not buy the foods that according to price give the best
results. With the limited money at their command this is a vital
matter for them. White bread, beef, mutton and tea, as the main
portions of a dietary, rank far below brown bread, porridge, bacon, cheese
and milk. I advise a circular being distributed throughout the district
setting out clearly the dietaries most suitable for the maintenance of
health of those of poor means. Having briefly passed under review some
of the many causes affecting public health, I should like for a moment or
two to consider what are the remedies for some of the more important of
the evils. The question of the casual labourer stands out prominently.
Without the means to earn sufficient money for the proper maintenance
of himself and his family he is a prey to overcrowding, semi-starvation,
disease and all the host of evils associated with the squalid poor. As I
have said before, the important time of a boy's life is the four years
following his elementary school life. The old system of apprenticeship
which is now dead, had many advantages. It not only taught a boy a
trade, but it subjected him to a discipline which tended to make him a
good citizen. Our Polytechnics, though splendid institutions, are concerned
almost exclusively in improving young men already engaged in