The Press. Saturday, November 23, 1918. Some Lessons of the Epidemic.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16377, 23 November 1918, Page 8

The Press. Saturday, November 23, 1918. Some Lessons of the Epidemic.

The serious visitation from which the Dominion is suffering, hut -which now happily shows 6igns of alleviation, will not be all loss if the public tako to heart and profit by the lessons which it teachcs. Wo have frequently dwelt on the deficiencies in our system of education—its pretentiousness but its neglect of essentials. The outbreak of influenza has revealed the faat that girls ore allowed to leave our schools, secondary as well as primary, without the smallest knowledge of the art of nursing —not even able to tako a temperature, to sponge a patient properly, or to prepare a few simple articles of invalids' food. How can it be said that, lacking this knowledge, they are fitted for their most important mission in life — that of being wives, and mothers of the children who, it is hoped, will be born into a brighter and better New Zealand, sanctified by the sacrifices of those who have laid down their lives in the great war. The Ambulance Association has done excellent work by its classes, and deserves every support, but, after all, these can only roach a small section of the community, and the foundations ought to be laid in the schools, so that every boy, as well as every girl, may not only acquire the elements of personal hygiene, but be able to give intelligent assistance to others in time of sickness. " Another blot on the community which

lias brought to light is the existence of slums in our principal cities ■which are a scandal and a disgrace to such a young country as ours. It is true that in this respect Auckland and TT&llington arc very much, worse off than Christchurch, but tho local conditions are here so much more favourable to decont housing that we at least ought to bo free fro'ii insanitary and overcrowdod dwellings. In the northern cities tho position disclosed has been, simply appalling. We read in the last Wellington pnp.~i> to hand of a shocking condition of affairs reported by one nf the voluntary workers who have been. Woing such snlciulid work by making a hoiise-to-house inspection, with the object of rendering assistance to those in need of it. lie found in one room, 12ft by 12ft. five sick persons, comprising two women, each with a baby, and a boy of eight years of age, lying on an old mattress and covers on the floor.' Tho two babies were lying on bundles of rags. Then- was no fcod or medicine, and no one to attend to the sufferers. Another sad case was that of a man and woman, rccent arrivals from Auckland, who were lying sick on a makeshift mattress placed on boxes in an otherwise empty room, for which they were paying £1 a week rent. The man had become ill on the train journey from Auckland : tho woman had been recently an inmate ot a mental hospital. Everyone knows that Wellington is exceptionally overcrowded just now, owing to the propinquity of tho camps, hut such scandals as those mentioned ought to be impossible in any civilised community. It is a grave reflection not only upon the past municipal government of New Zealand, but upon the Parliament, that in the capital of New Zealand to-day thero are to be found) slums as bad as in any capital in Europe. We would again urge, with all tho earnestness at our command, that a rational system of town planning should be one of the first works of reform to ba undertaken after the war, and that a Town Planning Act should bo passed which would at least prevent tho croation of slums in the future.