Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1896.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 180, 1 August 1896, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1896.

The i other day, umder tho title " The British constitution and the Consumptive Constitution," a correspondent pointed out the absurdity and shortsighted selfishness of one of the latest electioneering measures introduced by the Government, viz., The Public Health Act Amendment Bill. For some occult reason the New Zealand "working man" is supposed to have a dislike and dread of consumptive people, or, according to the modern term, persons suffering from " tuberculosis." It is not clear how the poor creatures with hectic cheeks and a hacking cough interfere with the thew and sinew of the colony as represented by co-operative gangs andi West Coast miners ; but the new bill is to somo extent the redemption of a promise made by the Ministry, especially by Mr Seddon, as long ago as the introduction of Mr Eeeves' extraordinary Undesirable Imigrants Bill. The measure is conceived in such a spirit of heartless selfishness, timorous exclusiveness, and disregard of international objections that it can hardly be taken seriously, and it must be considered merely as- one of the electioneering cries raised by the present Government whenever it wants to divert attention from its sins of omission and commission. It is quite likely that tubercular consumption is infectious, as it muse have been through all the ages without history recording an extraordinary epidemic in consequence. But in recent yoars we have discovered that infection lurks in everything from the hydatid laden breath of our pet dogs to the accumulations in our water filters. We are getting so scientific that wo may soon become a race of hypochondriacs. Life is hardly worth living if we are to hunt animalcule in our breakfast and bacilli in our dinners, microbes in our pleasant weaknesses and disease in our daily habits. Our forefathers contrived to live in blissful ignorance of the germ theory, and it is doubtful if they were less strong, .or mpro mortal than we are. Even admitting that in rare — extremely rare — cas,es the infection of consumption may be transmitted under peculiarly favourable condi-] tjons, would it npt bo inhuman, unBritish, to dose our ports against our own flesh and blood who may roach * our shores as a, last chance of prolonging life? Bufc, apart from this, would it be wiso from a commercial standpoint to exclude people, many of whom, if they came here at all, would bring money with them to spend ? The argument is one of the lowest expediency ; but_ it must not be overlooked. Statistics show that

lot one-tenth of the people who die if consumption in New Zealand had :ome to it within the laat ten or ifteen years. This proves that the lisease is already in the colony, and .he attempt to shut it out is as idle is the proposal is, barbarous, selfish, md shortsighted. There ie little to 'ear from the spread of consumption. [f it over had been likely to take an ipidemic form, it would have done so long ago, for New Zealand and Australia have ever been recommended by doctors as countries where the unfortunate victims of the lisease might eithor prolong their jpell of life or bo cured. As the new bill was conceived with reckless disregard of national sentiment, and merely as a bid for cheap popularity among the unthinking, so lias it been designed in gross ignorance of scientific facts. Every shipmaster arriving with passengers must make a declaration under heavy penalty that no one on his vessel is suffering from tuberculosis. Except in advanced stages of consumption nobody but an expert can tell its presence ; and the shipowners, in their own interest, will have to compel each intending passenger in London or elsewhere to undergo a medical examination before a ticket can be • issued to him or her. The effect on the passenger traffic will be mO3t marked, for in order to travel people will have to sacrifice their right to privacy and hand themselves over as public property to doctors and shipping companies. Commenting on thi contingency the " JNew Zealand Herald" says that -the deterrent effect on passenger traffic and on trad9 will be mdst marked. There are difficulties enough in the way of the colony rising out of the depression of the past, and progressing as a richly endowed and sparsely populated country like this ought to progreßS, ■without subjecting all intending visitors and immigrants to such an indignity — and all because of the possible accession of the very few consumptive people who, as ahowu by population, statistics, have ever come here. Another übsnrd provision of the bill is that, passengers are to be watched while travelling from port to port within the colony, and if they happen by accident to have uccapiett the same berth as a conBumptive, they incur all sorts of restrictions on lauding, Stricter precautions could hardly be taken against cholera or small-pox — and the ridiculous nature of the legislation iB exposed by the clause in the Bill exempting soldiers and Bailors of Her Majesty's forced from the operations of the measure. The individual who may have consumption, or who may have accidentally occupied the same berth as a consumptive, is te be treated as if he were a walking contagion; but if he be a soldier of the British Army or a sailor of the British Navy, it is to be assumed that he hes special virtues which prevent him from spreadinginfection, More over, any distinguished consumptive visitor duly accredited by the Imperial Government, or by any other Government, will ho exempt from exclusion — as if his credentials were in themselves disinfectants. Could absurdity further go 1 Could it be possible to bring together more incongruously the extremes of blatant domocracy and socialism run riot and a cringing snobbery 1 Persons in high places may bring in consumption, and welcome; but others are to bo shut out even if they have merely slept in the same berth as a consumptive ! Such distinctions arc an insult to the manhood of tho colony, just as the portions of the Public Health Act Amendment Bill relating to consumption arc an insult to its intelligence. The measure cannot pass, and the Legislative Council will do its duty by rejecting it; but it is obviously only intended as a catchpenny electioneering cry, though it is not clear why tho people whose votes Ministers woo should have a special class dislike of consumption.