CONSUMPTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 108, 3 November 1909, Page 4

CONSUMPTION.

HOW IT MUST BE COMBATED. DR. MASON'S LAST WORDS. The report of the Public Health Department, laid on the table of the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, chiefly deals with the question of the campaign against consumption. The late Chief Health Officer (Dr. Mason), discussing a subject in which he always took a great interest, says : "New Zealand still keeps a front place in the war against this disease. The Dominion is slowly but surely being provided with sanatoria, open-air shelters, etc., wherein the poor consumptives oan be cared for." The Waikato still continues its beneficent work, and he should be sorry to see , its sphere of usefulness curtailed, j The expenditure at Karere had been J most successful. The only fault was ' that tho encampment is too small. The patients engaged in tree-planting got what they earned, and out of their earnings they paid for their food and their share of running the camp. "The experiment," he says, "shows that it pays to look after our sick. Several who have been 'hardened off' at Karere have gone back to their ordinary work quite recovered. "If," he continues, "the lot of the man suffering from consumption is hard, truly the path of the woman is awful in its hopelessness. I speak of those who are poor, and havo few friends. . . . She has only to mention that she has come from a sanatorium, and her way is barred to her former oceppationa. • Someone, citliei the central authority or the several hospital boards, should provide a farm where such poor souls could work. If a place of shelter were provided by the Government, the various boards would; lam sure, pontributo. . . . Until suitable work is provided, such as beekeeping, poultry-raising, early flowergrowing, etc., for the 'cured' woman, much of the good done at the sanatoria and annexes will be wasted. "New Zealand has done much to check the enemy,' but she or her wealthy philanthropists must do more. . . ." The clear duty of the sanitarian is to keep on urging the reforms which scientific arguments of the experience of other countries show to be good. . . . We have a chance in a small country like this to effectually stamp out consumption if wo continue our efforts, but the campaign, like all others worthy of engagement, entails self-sacrifico.