TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 19, 24 January 1927, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

"Influenza is notoriously a tricky disease" is the view taken by the Health Department, and in keeping with this view the Department considers it advisable to test its organisation at all points so as to be prepared for any fresh outbreak. There has been a cortain amount of gastric influenza lately, and this, taken in conjunction with the reports from Europe, has possibly created a little alarm. The careful survey made by the Minister of Health indicates, however, that there is no cause for alarm. The authorities are vigilant, and, while hoping for the best, are quite prepared to guard against the worst. This should reassure the public and strengthen" confidence. ■ And after ( all confidence ana tho mental attitude have much to do with tjie public health. A people immune from fears will often be immune i'rom sickness. The Health Department is taking the best course to secure this immunity by stating the exact position .without- exaggeration or concealment. .■.'■'" .*'.*■ •■ Entertainment and education, according to ; Mr. J. M; Prentice, may both be advanced, by wireless. Having had successful experience in Australia, Mr. Prentice is able to speak with authority of the best lines for development in New Zealand. He considers' that the ultimate value of the service is likely to be found in the provision of information ana entertainment for the dwollers on'the land rather than in supplying entertainment for city, dwellers. At present, however, most licenses are held in the main cities,' ana it is from the cities that the greatest support may be expected. In the development of the service this fact should not be forgotten. Bevenue is required and the licensees who provide it will expect to see it used in the improvement of their part of the programme. Information, market reports, and lectures on farming operations may well be ir-.ade an attractive feature of the wireless programmes, but if they are introduced at the expense of the city dwellers (to the exclusion of good entertainment), the people who provide.the greater part of the, revenue will complain. Such an information service should remain supplementary to rather than in substitution for the entertainment. While making every effort to develop special features, either for town, or country, the improvement of the general part of the programme (the entertainment section, which is the main revenue producer) must never be lost sight of.

As an -uncompromising advocate of preventive medicine, Sir Arbuthnot Lane has had some hard things to say about women, hospitals, and drugs. The women, he states, " first teach us wrong, habits and feed us wrongly." This is an easy excuse for the male offenders; but it is scarcely acceptable. So far as feeding is concerned man has probably devised more errors for himself than ho acquired in childhood. "Train up the child tho way. he should go" is a sound precept; but in the matter of food even the well-train-ed child.will probably seize the earliest opportunity of rejecting the advice of his mother in favour' of the practice of his father. If ho has wrongly been allowed to acquire a taste for sweets, he will double the errpr of his own accord by developing an appetite for highly spiced savouries. As purveyors for tho household, women may bo in a strong position to correct these mis-ta-kcs of diet, but the men cannot expect them to do it unless they co-oper-ate. To secure reform the doctor should direct his attention not merely to the housewife who orders the meals,' but also to the man who grumbles at them.