THE SOCIAL HYGIENE BILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10109, 17 October 1917, Page 5

THE SOCIAL HYGIENE BILL.

TO TUB EDITOB. j Sir,- In reply to your tMlitorial on the 1 jiljiim tin* women’s societies have taken ju protest mg against some ot the clauses m me lion. Kussoll’s .Social ilygiene Bill, | 1 wisii to draw your attention to the tact; 1 that Air Massey has suggested that. Mr has- 1 ,m*H meet the women in oontorcnce, whicn ; ■ ,s a very sensible plan, and 1 hope will bo i carried out. .The Bid, we all agree is ap cood one m many respects, but in dealing j With an evil that has existed from time immemorial, panicky legislation should bo most careiully avoided, especially when it touches family life. . j he women have been asking for many wars that tho ago of consent be raised to years. A girl of 16 is at the. most dangerous and irresponsible ago m a. woman’s life. But the Government who protects a woman properly until she is 21 refused lo protect her lionour, winch- is ot far more value to herself, the homo, aim the .Stale over the age of 16. ' They have asked until they are weary that segregation farm colonies bo organised for tho unlit of both sexes, but Mr Russell aims at making prisoners of tho wrecks of our vicious social system. . . They never insisted that innocent wives should bo notified of thoir husband’s condition, when tho wives’ and childrens health lias been endangered, but in the past politicians and medical men have been homlied at the idea of disturbing family relations. They demand that the sale of intoxicants bo prohibited, which all evidence proves to bo tho greatest contributing cause of tliib trouble, and after over 25 years of j lighting, they have shortened the hoars of . sale 1 'They have asked for free treatment, free'; night and week-end clinics, when every, .sufferer may receive tho best medical <i-id, 'but Mr Russell advocates compulsory detention, which lias proved worso than a failure wherever it has been put into force. Women patrols for tho protection of our young people have been demanded, but always been refused, until Mr Russell lias wisely taken the matter into his own hands. Compulsion in tho treatment of any disease, when disgrace is attached to it, lias always, and will always, drive it underground, when it will become a greater menace than ever to the public health. This evil is so serious, and the horrors connected with it are mi revolting that we hope that something drastic will be done immediately, but let it be the light thing, and avoid placing on the Statute . Book panicky legislation that will take a lifetime of effort to have removed. J .ad V Stout will deal more exhaustively in' her lecture in the Empire Hall on Thursday night with ibis most vital <]ues-tion.-I am, etc., BRISCA CRABB.