TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 117, 19 May 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

♦ | New Zealand's vaccination law is not quite a dead letter ; Legal Medicine it is" having a last for the Faculty, kick. At Christchurch yesterday thirty -six people, including two medical men and a public vaccinator, were summoned foi failure to secure exemptions for tdieii children. The anti-vaccina>tioii-ists may merrily score a point with the public vaccinator's practical antipathy to lymph, but, with memories of protracted controversies in other days, we trust that they will not make their letters too long. We have sympathy with those who honestly object to vaccination, but we have no pity for those who have been prosecuted. It is very easy to obtain an. exemption, if the objector conscientiously believes that the injection of the lymph will be harmful. The exemption. f«e ol 2s 6d w not appalling. The objector nas merely to go to the troublo of signing an application form in the pretence of a Justice of the Peace, and if tho child's welfare is nob worth this trouble, the parent doe? not deserve to escape prosecution for his apathy. If the law is a bad law in New Zealand's opinion, then it is for the people to insist on the law's repeal, but while the law stands in its present form — which is not a harsh, oppressive form — it should be re&pected. If the authorities believe that the law is good they should have the courage of their convictions, just as the objectors should have- the energy of their convictions, or be prepared to take the penalty without grumbling. Auckland people should not be "panicky ' about tho report of Watch another case of • bubonic Out. plague in their city, for the disease has been" detected there in tho past, and has been successfully held in check, though some of the victims died. Suspicion, in this in-

stance, rests on soiled lineu from ships as the source of infection, because the patient had been employed in a laundry where material of that kind from overseas vessels was handled. The great safeguard against the plague is rigorous inspection at the port of arrival, and civic cleanliness. At the time of the great "scare" a few years ago New Zealand was thoroughly cleaned up. People Vith garbage-littered yards and foul fowl-houses and other things to aid and abet such a trouble as the plague were thoroughly stirred up. The Public Health Act of 1905 was originally designed to maintain such sanitation as the "scare" promoted, but the Act actually ' proved to be more a bogey than a, power for permanent good. Times brought a slackening, many people lapsed into the old habits of carelessness and recklessness. A striking instance of the decease of the old "scare" feeling was given last year by Dr. Newman when he urged that the "plague hospital" at Berhampore should be used as an ordinary infectious diseases hospital. There is no need for the people here to be in any state of alarm, but it will be well for them to co-operate heartily with the city's inspectors in keeping then premises free from rubbish which attracts or Harbours rats. A recent paragraph in The Post indicated that a strong antiCanada at gambling sentiment was Bay. developing in the "Big Dominion," Canada. A BUI proposes an attempt at tho impossible (for the present)— a suppression of betting and wagering in all forms. It has been recommended that a penalty up to a year's imprisonment, or up to a fine of £200, should be imposed on any person who "records or registers any bet or wager, or sells any pool upon the results (a) of any political or municipal election ; (2) of any race ; (c) of any contest or trial of skill or endurance of man, or beast." That does manifest a desire to make a clean sweep with a large broom, but a broom of the size required would need more men than Canada can spare at the handle, and there would be too much dust stirred up to allow the law to be popular. the frienda of the Bill may offer a spirited defence of their drastia proposals. They have been exasperated by some of the evils of the "American" invasion. Spasmodically, some of the Legislatures of the United States make wai upon the horse and the "horsey," and many of the j money-changers have gone across the border to enjoy greater security and more assured peace. A New Zealander [ who travelled through Canada a few months ago touched a district afflicted with three weeks' horse-racing, straight I on, day after clay, and the majority of [ the promoters were from the south side |of the Great Lakes. What is not good enough for the sensation-loving "States" is not good enough for the Dominion. Canada has no use for abuses which her neighbour is trying to banish. The fate of the new Bill will be of much interest I to New Zealand.