DUNEDIN PEOPLE THANKED

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21987, 11 January 1937, Page 10

DUNEDIN PEOPLE THANKED

Praise for Health Officer STATEMENT BY MINISTER [THE PRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, January 10. After a brief visit to Dunedin on Saturday afternoon, when he consulted the district health and hospital authorities, the Minister for Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, made a statement emphasising his high appreciation of the way in which Dr. McKibbin and his staff had handled the difficult problems arising from the infantile paralysis epidemic. "After a discussion with Dr. McKibbin and others associated with him," the Minister said, "I feel satisfied that everything that is humanly possible to combat.the disease has been done. The whole of the medical profession has done its very best in the emergency and its services call for acknowledgment. Moreover, the people of Dunedin as a whole deserve all credit for the splendid spirit they have shown in acquiescing in the restrictions which have been considered necessary and in cheerfully bearing the inevitable handicaps resulting from those restrictions. In this respect I feel-I can. as "Minister for Health, thank the Dunedin people on behalf of the rest of the Dominion. "I have not personally come across any instances such as those recently mentioned in the press where it was alleged that placards had been exhibited : in some cities warning Dunedin people from entering their shops. If such methods, futile and foolish in themselves—for obviously there can be no means of determining whether a stranger is a Dunedin resident—are being adopted anywhere, they are to be strongly discouraged, because they will only defeat the object they are so confusedly purporting to achieve, and may initiate a wholly unwarranted and dangerous feeling of panic. "All the steps to prevent the spread of poliomyelitis which are considered necessary by the best authorities have been taken. Indeed, the measures adopted by the public health authorities in other countries have been exceeded by the measures adopted by the Health Department in the present epidemic. ;.. Taking all the facts into consideration, however, the time has not yet arrived for the removal of the restrictions, onerous though some of them may be in some instances."