EPIDEMIC COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 52, 1 March 1919, Page 13

EPIDEMIC COMMISSION.

HO SLUMS IN THE CITY,

WOKKEKS* EXPERIENCES.

CONTROL OF CHILDREN"

The EpWemi-' Commission rontimied sittings at tho Customs Buildings avr ' af ' er,,r ' or ** .!,• & Bap'.ey. of district * ees. Aucklar.ii, said the jrreat diffinl "l4- with regard to the appeal? from 2» country was to secure trained - thouph all possible were sent. .jy others partially trained the most experienced V.A.D.'s that ta lH be found. Altogether, Including c ._ and eountrv, a total of 63*2 nurses , v.AJD- _<=lpers *-ere sent out. JjVflv who bad worked all through the "idem** in town '.rent out to even more tenuous work in the country. Of the 1 til .yen '2.i were trained a. qualifie-d '"_,/ 15 were partiall. trained, and :i1 were women ■ . varying or no nursT'_ experience. The total number sent wthe Department t. help in country -fcricts. including ( 'reat Barrier and ttotaE-i' vas --°- of thepe 1T w<,re reified nurses, and 12 partially trained. - others were men and women more less experienced in nursimr work. fflthont the motor transit which they i-sd at their disposal to convey nurses. Helpers and food, not half the work paid hare been accomplished by the Workers they ha_ In addition to help tins publicly provided, many people ren- -'__ splendid service among their Ipjjds and neighbours. ?he alluded to fte excellent work done by the boy and rid scouts, and to the commendable ab_ce of friction among the women epidemic workers in Auckland.

HEALTH BAROMETER. Tft. p. M. Ma.cK.eHar gave details of infuenza- patients visited by him since OctoMr 1. On October 18, he said, he visited s'case at Morningside. The man said he bail been killing rats during the day. yd was taken ill in the evening. VVitejss ascertained that this man had not Ken in contact with any of the Niagara -atients nr others. A good indication of the health of the city during the epijeaic period, he said, was the number of Prescriptions made up at the Friendly Societies' dispensary. On October 10 Jhev sent out 10-i prescriptions, on October"lT. 161, and .00 on November 4. At the prespnt time, when the health of the city was good, they were dispensing very

Ettle. Mr. F. A. Hansard, orthopaedist, said he was working in conjunction with the St. John Ambulance Association, and visited nearly every portion of the city during the epidemic. He had heard a peat deal about slum conditions in Auckland, but it was not borne out by ais experience. He had travelled a jrreat Seal, and to compare the conditions of Auckland with the slum conditions of some of the European countries was out of the question. There were no slums iere: there might be slum conditions here, but there were certainly no slums, though there was a great deal of overcrowding.

Mrs. E. McDowell, of the nursing diyison of the St. John Ambulance Association, and Sergt. L. G. Dunn, of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, gave evidence regarding the work and conditions during the epidemic period, the latter stating that he had visited practically all o_r the city during the epidemic. He did not consider that there were anyreal slums here. BETTER STANDARDS OF LIVING. Miss J. Butler, headmistress of the _c_and Girls' Grammar School, .aid some of the houses she saw at Freeman's Bay were intensely bad for people to _t_ in. To some extent the conditions were due to the people themselves, though it was a difficult matter to live decently in some of the houses. At the sime time there were people living in rimilar houses in the same locality who kept them scrupulously clean. In many case she thought the conditions in the houses were due to the improvidence of the people themselves. In the worst eases she expressed the opinion that it wonld be in the interests of the children to place them under some separate control so that better standards of living could be inculcated.