SOCIAL HYGIENE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1018, 10 November 1917, Page 3

SOCIAL HYGIENE.

LAW TO BE ENERGETICALLY ENFORCED. WOMEN’S LETTER TO MINISTER. The Minister of Internal Affairs has received from Mrs Averill, wife of the Bishop of Auckland, and president of the Mothers’ Union of the Auckland Diocese, the following letter relating Ui the Social Hygiene Act passed in the session just closed : “1 am writing on behalf of our Central ( onneil of the Mothers’ Union in the Auckland Diocese. At a full meeting of members in council it wa.s decided to tender you our grateful thanks for your Bill ro venereal disease*, and to press for the setting up of local advisory boards as soon as possible. “We beg to suggest tho issue .of health certificates to men and women before marriage takes place, and that literature dealing with the first symptoms ■ and treatment of this disease should be issued to all organisations oi women, and to all teachers throughout the Dominion, and to press also the necessity of night and free clinics in each centre.” The letter is counter-signed by llio Bishop.of Auckland. In answer to inquiries, the Minister made the following statement on the subject; “The portion of the Bill relating to the setting up of local advisory boards was.cut out, but power is taken for the Minister to encourage the establishment of hygienic associations, and this will be done in all the principal centres. All the regulations necessary for bringing the entire Bill into operation are now being prepared, and very shortly the main clauses of the Act will be"made operative. The facilities provided for the free'treatment of venereal diseases will he notified by posters to he displayed in every post oliice and railway station in the country. Now that the Bill has been passed into law it is our intention to administer it with vigour,' and it is hoped that some assistance will he given to the authorities in the light with the ‘red plague.’ ”