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Public Health: Family Issues
As family size shrank across 'the Flat',
the importance of protecting children's
health grew. Mothers worried about their
babies and did all they could to stave off
tragedy. They made sure their children had
plenty of fresh air, nutritious food and
regular bowel movements.
Wilson's
Malt Extract and Lane's Emulsion were staples
in the diet of southern Dunedin children.
In return for regular consumption, these
'tonics' promised healthier, stronger, happier
children. Patent medicines were equally
popular. Newspapers and books provided the
latest suggestions on diet and health. (Otago
Settlers Museum Collection)
Truby
King founded the Society for the Promotion
of the Health of Women and Children - more
commonly called the 'Plunket Society' in
1907. Its first nurses' training school
was in Andersons Bay - a Dunedin suburb
adjoining 'the Flat'. Plunket's founding
coincided with a longer term decline in
infant mortality. Over the next thirty years
infant mortality in New Zealand dropped
by a third. In this undated cartoon from
The Tickler, King's 'Plunket System'
of baby care - which emphasised strict feeding,
sleeping, toileting, bathing and playing
patterns, is caricatured. (Otago Settlers
Museum Collection)
By
the 1890s new scientific understandings
of the causes of disease, and how to control
them, were filtering through to popular
understanding. This stressed the importance
of hygiene and healthy living. Dirt was
seen as the enemy of healthy homes. The
mothers of 'the Flat' led the battle against
the germs that spread disease. They scrubbed
their floors with a passion, beat the carpets
and boiled the laundry. Home Science emerged
as a discipline and spread the message of
hygienic household management among the
next generation of mothers. Even so, not
all children were healthy and happy. Health
camps, and this 'Caversham Open Air School
for Delicate Children' from the 1920s were
founded on the belief that fresh air, sunshine,
exercise and good food three times a day
were essential for growing bodies. (Otago
Witness, 4 January 1928. Otago Settlers
Museum Collection)
Tuberculosis
was a major cause of death in nineteenth
century New Zealand. In 1910 a special sanatorium
was built at Pleasant Valley, Palmerston,
for Otago sufferers. Infectious diseases,
such as rheumatic fever, could spread rapidly
through families and neighbourhoods. Typhoid,
a major scourge in the nineteenth century,
declined as living conditions and water
supplies improved. This official government
notice gives the public advice on avoiding
tuberculosis, how to recognise if you have
the disease and where to seek help if you
are infected. (Timeframes Online Collection,
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library
of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa)
Alcoholism
was a scourge, especially for men and, through
them, their wives and families. It was the
major reason for male admissions to the
Seacliff Mental Asylum. A drunken father
could drag his entire family into poverty.
Women, too, sometimes took refuge from their
troubles in drink. (The Sketcher,
December 1914. Otago Settlers Museum Collection)
Friendly
Societies provided one of the few ways for
families to protect themselves against the
loss of an income through sickness or accident.
Many of the numerous Lodges operating on
'the Flat' - social organisations like the
Masons, the Oddfellows, the Druids and the
Foresters - offered such benefit schemes.
They played a key role in insuring families
against ill health until the 1938 Social
Security Act. This photograph shows some
of the ceremonial items used by the Foresters
Lodge including deer horns and an 'apron'
featuring the Society's insignia. (Otago
Settlers Museum Collection)
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