PAPERSPAST

PUBLIC HEALTH

TO TH« EDITOR. Sir, It has fallen to the lot of a stranger to cause us to open our eyes to our maternity question. My ears are still ringing: with the Berious and outspoken words of Dr Truby King when he admitted that he believed many years of his life had been wasted in dealing with preventiblo .disease. With emphasis he said: "1 am sick of it." I'wonder if wo ever stop to think of the enormous cost of this preventable disease to the community. In Wellington we have a small army of-doctors, nurses, arid chemists, in addition to a host of individuals claiming to core all our ills. I want to say that wo are not getting the full results of our medical school, inspection, because the medical officers are overworked, and it is impossible for them to see that their recommendations are carried out. Watch at any school, and you will observe children suffering from, troubles of a communicable nature. It is time we had a system whereby Buch'troubles should be treated at once. The child is a national asset, and if the parents neglect to use commonsense measures, is the child to suffer and have its general health impaired, in addition to being a menace to others ? I wonder if the goriera-l public has the faintest ,idea of the baneful effects of some mce-tasting mixtures on children 1 During the late "flu", epidemic I visited hundreds of homes, and was shocked, to observe the quantities of so-called medicine containing morphia and allied drugs being freely given to children, and, in some cases, .to infants: Poor children —in many cases confined in,- ill-ventilated, stuffy rooms. This state of-affairs is a blot on our, co-called civilisation. 'Sir, I. ' wish I could draw the veil away from many of the' meal tables of our single young women. If I did you could easily account for the need of paint and powder. To dress, many of these girls practically starve themselves", and then, when they marry and. become .mothers, add themselves amongst the human wrecks. One of the greatest curses humanity has is the everohanging fashion-plate. We need women, real women, to help stop this, especially in these times of economic stress. Your sisters live on cheap, ill-nourishing food to dress costly.

Summer, with its fly troubles, will soon be on us: Adjoining the Brooklyn tram line you will obsorve some splendid breeding grounds under tho auspioes of our City Council. I trust a vigorous' campaign against the deadly fly will bo undertaken with every sanitary inspector enthusiastic in this particular crusade. Last, but hot least, seeing that our military forces are almost at vanishing point, could we not get General M'Gavin to cooperate with our. Public Health Department in inquiry into the cause of many of our diseases? In conclusion, is it too much to asf: the press to mako exhaustive inquiries into Ratana's healing work and invite the medioal profession to criticise the result of suoh inquiries?—l am, etc., POUR OUTRE. . 15th August. ■.■ : . '

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