THE SOCIAL HYGIENE BILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10110, 18 October 1917, Page 4

THE SOCIAL HYGIENE BILL.

Jfits Claim's letter, intended by way of replv to our leading article of Tuesday, dealing with the Social Hygiene Hill, misses the point particularly emphasised by us, that the views and objections raised by the women's societies, with which .Mrs Crabb and Lady Stout are connected, arc not, generally speaking, those held by the women of New Zealand. On the contrary—and we speak on this point with certain knowledge of representations made to the Minister in charge of the Bill by Wellington ladies, whose clinical knowledge and practical acquaintance with disease entitles them to be heard on the subject- .Mr Russell's Bill, so far from being regarded as "panicky legislation," is accepted as covering (as we described it oil Tuesday) "a courageous and laudable attempt to ileal, on humanitarian principles, with one of the greatest scourges that afflict mankind in the way of contagious diseases." And .Mrs Crabb herself supplies the reason why a measure of this sort is not only needed, but must be enforced. "Compulsion in the treatment of any disease (.Mrs Crabb says in her letter of yesterday), when disgrace is attached to it, has always, and will always, drive it underground, when it will become a greater menace than ever to the public health." Accepting that statement as it stands, we submit it supplies an imperative reason why the victims oi such disease must be sought out and taken from the "underground" haunts in which thev seek refuge. The victims of the Red Plague are not conlined to either sex. nor would it be correct, to say that one sex more than the other is responsible for its increasing growth amongst us. The flaw in the Contagious Diseases Act, which (as we pointed out on Tuesday), although inoperative, still remains on the Statute Book and can be revived at anytime bv Governor's Proclamation, is that it' applies to the one sex only, and that the weaker, the powers it places in the hands of the authorities affecting women and women only, lae I Social Hvgiene Bill does away with that injustice', and the measure is applicable to both men and women. lne Bill does not, as Mrs Crabb presumably thinks, deal with the victims ol disease as criminals, although it is true it provides' for their compulsory detention in hospitals that are to be specially set apart for the purpose, and where they will have the benefit of special treatment that it is hoped and believed will result ill their relief, it it does not actually cure them of the much dreaded scourge. And, because of the virulent nature ol the disease itself, and the danger of its being communicated to persons wholly innocent of immoral conduct, and ignorant also of the risks thev may encounter through accidental contact with its victims, or articles they mav have used, it is imperative that tile sufferers should be dealt With eompulsorily and, where necessary, isolated, in the same way that our health laws demand the isolation of sufferers from smallpox. scarlet lever, and other contagious diseases A careful perusal of Mr Russell's Bill relieves it of all suspicion ol "panicky legislation," and we are surprised that the women's societies referred to should regard it m that light.