The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1906

Evening Star, Issue 12928, 26 September 1906, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1906

1 ~ ~7 ' j Whkn Sir Joseph Ward assumed the 3 Premiership he relinquished IJ The Pnblic control of the Public Health Health. Department, and in presenting the Chief Health Offit cor's sixth annual report he takes occasion r to remark that the "creation" of the Do- [ partment "has more than justified its ; existence." The wording is characterisj 1 tically loose (Sir Joseph presumably writes , as fast as he speaks)—a creation can hardly justify its existence—but the implied claim is quite valid. It is impossible to estimate the value of the work done , by the Department since its inception. Much remains to be accomplished; in- ■ deed, the battle will never cease on this side the millennium; but the way has at least been cleared by the removal of much prejudice, apathy, and ignorance. These mischievous qualities have not disappeared, however, and the task of educating public sentiment in regard to matters of sanitation is slow and difficult. In this respect, at least, healthy people are apt to assume that the conditions under which they themselves grew up are good enough for their children and succeeding generations—oblivious of the unnumbered lives that did not " grow up " and of the heavy toll which insanitary customs must have exacted from helpless humanity throughout the years. We frankly rejoice in the work of this Department, and we think . that the people of New Zealand are to t be congratulated upon the possession of such enthusiastic and capable servants as Dr Mason (the Chief Health Officer) and his assistant (Dr Valintine). not forgetting the other representatives of the Department scattered throughout the Colony, each of whom performs excellent work, often of a trying and thankless nature. From the mass of valuable material contained in the report and appendix three subjeots may be selected for special notice —milk supply, the fight against consumption, and the condition of the native race. Dr Mason has much to say about milk supply, while Dr Valintine's treatment, of the matter is even more elaborate. The unaatkfactary supervision of dairies is still a source of anxiety, though many improvements have been effected during recent years. The main problem—how best to hand the milk to the consumer in the condition in which it came from the cow—is beset with practical difficulties, which oannot be solved. without "capital and ideal honesty." Owing to the insanitary state of byres, the unskilfnlness of milkers, , and want of care in transit or distribution, what should be an ideal food for children is frequently transformed into " a veritable agent for ill-health and death." No less than 538 children were carried off last year by diseases notoriously connected with an impure milk supply and bad , feeding. Dr Mason fully appreciates the ■ difficulties experienced by the keepers of cows—especially the owners of small herds. They require encouragement and help, as , well as education. When they know their duty it is sometimes almost impossible for them to perform it. There is some confusion of responsibility, as between the Agricultural and Health Departments; and it is urged that the former should control the supply before it is pnt upon ithe train, the latter taking charge from J that point. As regards the mischiefs ! arising from improper methods of distribution, the buyer is often more to blame than the seller, and some good, may possibly be done by giving prominence to the following observations : One has only to take his walks abroad before the shutters are down, so to speak, and see the heterogeneous kind of receptacle set outside the respectable ratepayers' doors, into which the milkman is required to dump the pint or quart, and it is easy to realise that even if the milk had escaped all the previous penis it has many more to meet. Widemouthed open jugs, tin billies, with here and there only a properly-constructed vessel, adorn the doorsteps" or windowsills. Grant that careful inspection has secured the cleanliness of the milk till the sleepy distributor has measured it out into the vessel, what dirt and dust may not be swept into it as it waits exposed to the wind-swept streets? Dr Mason asks that a trial should be given to the system which he has previously recommended—viz., that all milk entering a town of over 4,000 inhabitants should pass through a municipal conduit. In other words, it should be delivered, as- \ saved, and pasteurised at a municipal fac- , tory, and then distributed by officers of , the borough. This seems rather a large ' order, but it is right to say that the Chief Health Officer appears not only to make out a good case in support of his contention, bat also to demonstrate the practicability of the scheme. " Anti- \ socialistic " objectors to this plan of muniI cipalisation are reminded of the various , agencies—insurance, old age pensions, | railways, etc.—controlled by the State in the interests of adult life, and are asked why some care should not be extended _ to those who aire just beginning life. "We may or we may not be able to I' legislate so as to influence the birth-rate, j "but assuredly we can do much to lessen . "the yearly toll which impure milk and . " improper feeding exact from those just ■ "entering upon their citizenship." In this matter, as in nearly all others related to public health, ' apathy and lazy scepticism are the chief obstacles iu the path of the reformer. The average father and mother have difficulty in believing that the issues involved are really ; so momentous as health officers represent them to be; and a large minority—perhaps • a majority—are ready, in their conceited • ignorance, to make disparaging allusions to what they are pleased to term "faddirai." Dt Truby King, who has been trying to teach mothers how to feed their children properly, could tell a suggestive story in ! this connection! Before leaving the subject of milk supply," we cannot resist the ■ temptation of making an extract from Dr Valintine's Wellington experiences. There is a hint of "Tho Jungle' in it. Last November I happened, in the course of my inspections, to come across an exceedingly filthy dairy. The cowb, [ the milkers, the yards, the byres, and the utensils were ail dirty in the extreme.

Inquiry discovered the destination, of the milk. I jntenriewed tibe managers of the receiving company next day r They owned that the mOk from this farm generally arrived nj a filthy condition, but . denied that it was ever allowed to supplement the supply of an important institution for which they were contractors. "What do you do with it, then?" ''Oh," najvely replied one of the managers, " we send that milk on our street round, where the people are mostly bad marks." The manager realised his mistake too late. "Do ypu retail it at the aame price as you charge for good milk?" " Oh, yes." And the doctor adds significantly that the poor of our cities have to pay for dirty milk, not only in cash, but in the lives of their children. The campaign against consumption, we are glad to say, makes steady progress. The Hospital Boards are gradually beginning to realisD their duty in the matter, but the Dunedin Board cannot yet be added to the list of those who have taken effective steps making for the treatment of poor sufferers. We trust that Dr Mason's pointed pleading will produce good results here and elsewhere, and that the number of open-air shelters for cansamjh tive patients will rapidly increase. The Chief Health Officer is optimistic upon the whole. ? "The great hopes foreshadowed "in my previous reports are gradually "being realised." It is becoming increasingly possible to offer something more material than sympathy to the homeless seeker after health. We should not have supposed that even the person who prates ignorantfy and selfishly about "the dangere of Socialism" would have anything to say against the attempt to provide shelters for consumptives, but Dr Mason has apparently come across such critics—for he says: It is easy in the secluded privacy of one's study or office to talk of surrender to Socialism, and to, rate departure from strict economic principles; but face to face with the indigent consumptive it is difficult to assume this academic indifference. We have decided to help in ©very way scienco can suggest the continuance of the irrevocably insane, the incurable imbecile. Surely some pity and help is justifiable with respect' to the sufferer from consumption. Wc have not space to quote a closelyreasoned remonstrance addressed to the people who object to the location of sanatoria in their neighborhood. Suffice it to say that Dr Mason shows elearly that the objections are generally invalid and flimsy. There has been an outcry in Christchurch regarding the splendid site offered by the trustees of the Cashmere Estate. It is said, for one thing, that patients will travel in the tramcars and spread infection. The answer is that they travel in the cars now, ignorant (for the roost part) of the rules of safety which they would learn in the sanatorium. The "first, middle, and last lesson" learned there .relates to the danger which attaches to the sputum of the diseased person; hence " common sense assures us that the dan"gers of infection must be lessened instead "of increased" by the establishment of shelters in the neighborhood of the cities. Dr Mason urgently solicits consideration and aid for poor patients who have recovered sufficiently to re-enter the workaday world. Their chief need is light employment in the open air. A 9 matters are, they generally return to work indoors, frequently to relapse and death. Employment on State farms or forest nurseries is suggested, if private benewjlence cannot meet the difficulty. Our third subject—the condition of the native race—must be reserved for a subse>quent article. I