VENEREAL DISEASE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 5 July 1943, Page 6

VENEREAL DISEASE

BELIEVED WELL IN CHECK VIEWS OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE Wellington, July 3. A full inquiry into the incidence of venereal disease in the Dominion has been completed by the Health Committee of the House of Representatives following a petition by 185 women asking for further measures to combat the disease. The committee reporting to the House yesterday referred the petition to the Government for favourable consideration, but stated that after an increase in 1940-41 the disease had been considerably reduced and was now well in check. One member of the committee said the evidence showed that the Dominion was not suffering from the disease to anything like the extent which many people had been led to believe. The chairman of the committee, Mr Anderton (Government, Eden) said the committee was favourably impressed with the evidence of officers of the department that New Zealand was In a happy position in the treatment and control of the disease. The petitioners had believed that the Government was paying more attention to the control of the disease in women than in men but he would point out that the men were in the forces and were taken care of to a far greater extent than they were in civil life. The Army, Navy and Air Force were responsible for the treatment of all their personnel who were out of the hands of the Health Department. Mr Anderton said it would be fatal for the Government to set up a band of policemen and policewomen to look for people in this trouble, who should be treated with consideration, kindness and gentleness and not as outcasts. The evidence before the committee showed that the disease was being kept well in check. “We now know that New Zealand is leading the world in regulations to prevent the spread of venereal disease” said Mr Kyle (Independent, Riccarton) another member of the committee. “The evidence shows that the 1941 regulations put New Zealand far ahead of Australia. We thought Australia had been carrying on an intensive campaign and we had been lagging, but the evidence shows that Australia has only got to the position where we were before 1941.” Mr Kyle said the disease was not spread by prostitution the practice of which was negligible. "The country is not suffering from the disease to anything like the extent which we had been lead to believe” he added. "The incidence is infinitesimal, compared with that in other parts of the civilised world.”