REEFTON NOTES.

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1929, Page 2

REEFTON NOTES.

(From Our Correspondent.) REEFTON, April 16. Mr Jas. Crabb, formerly shift boss at the Progress Mine, and now of Wei lington, was a visi or to Reefton at *he week-end, and left for Wellington by Monday’s Nelson car. Mr Ja\ Edwards of Bridge Street is at present an inmate of Westport Hospital, having had an arm broken while employed on the Buller Gorge railway workers. Mrs Jos. Hunt was a visitor to Greymouth attending the funeral of her late brother, Chas. Harrison. Miss N. Dead man (formerly Miss Heath of Crushington) was a visitor to Reefton yesterday, renewing old acquaintances. Beautiful weather conditions are at present prevailing at Reefton, and it is general comment th e mildness of the weather. A bicycle road race from Reefton to Cronadun a~.id back yesterday attracted eight starters, including Nicolson, 11. Wilson and Howson of Greymouth. The visitors outclassed the local men, and filled the three places, i Nicolson winning easily from H. Wil • son by a length and a half, with Howson some distance away. The next to finish was McMahon, followed by D. Reid. McMahon fell while turning at Cronadun, and had another spill further, while Hewison did not complete the course. Tlfe winner’s time was 38 min 1 2-5 sec., the second man’s being 38 min 11 2-5 sec. Howson’s, 40 min 5 sec.

While the two candidates have be<*t fiercely figh.ing their claims t 0 the Bay of Islands seat, the country has been saving money by non-payment of a member’s salary (says the “Auckland Sun”). When Mr 11. M. Rushworth and Mr Allen Bell tied at the General (Election, andi the returning officer cast his vote for Mr Bell, salary amounting to £l7 10s for the fortnight from the election date 14th November, during which he occupied the position, was paid t 0 Mr Bell. Then the magisterial recount reversed the decision and put Mr Rush worth in. So the salary was then paid to the Country Party’s sole representative in the House, who reached Parliament just in time for the emergency session. Later, when the petition upet the elation altogether, the Bay of Islands was again left without a member of Parliament, and all salaries stopped.

Conquest and cure of tuberculosis in its early stages is an accomplished fact, according to Dr. F. Leonard Keith, medical officer at Bethnal Green. Lecturing at the Winter School for Health Visitors and School Nurses, at Bedford College for Women, London, Dr. Keith stated that the death rate from tuberculosis had dropped 40 or 50 per cent in the last 40 years. “If” he continued, “we find a case in an early stage—and by modern diagnostic methods this can easily be detected, provided people will come to us—the disease is qui e curable.” The death rate in women had improved more than in’ men. “But this death rate has changed not only in sex, but in age, and death tends to be in the younger periods oi lise rather than the middle-aged,” he added. He attributed the decline in mortali'.y very largely to the improved standards of modern living. Where wages were lowest the death rate was highest. Dr. K n ’th defined the fi'-o r r ent bar*ier* which are still to be broken down as:— — —. Defective notification since the

ascertaining of cases is both plete and in many instances too late. Poverty. Bad housing conditions, which reduce the convalescent’s chance of recovery and facilitate the spread of the disease among the family. Milk, the staple food of childhood. may contain living tuberculosis bacilli, for which pastuerisation would be an effective safeguard, and the industrial barrier, crc-’.ting the difficulty of reabsorbing into industry persons capable of only part time employment and then but intermittently. There was a good deal of unnecessary nervousness on the part of many people over tuberculosis*, remarked Dr. Keith. The majority of people who had the disease were not infectious; Ibe publicity about it should dweP not so much on its risks, as its cun bility if taken in time. Ba'y Bros, are trie only manufacturers of Pasteurised Milk on the West Ring Phone 411 and they will call.