DR. MASON AND COMPULSORY VACCINATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12213, 7 March 1903, Page 6 (Supplement)

DR. MASON AND COMPULSORY VACCINATION.

' , TO THE EDITOR. V>' Sir,— Mason has thought it. wise (vide Hekald, January 31) to publish in a. handy form for the people of New Zealand ■ Sir J.. D. Acland's lecture, "Vaccination and-com-mon Sense," and in- a preface thereto . emphatically affirms that- n there is no desire on the part- of the.Health- Department.-to force vaccination' upon our citizens against their expressed , wish," that, " despite the disclaimer in ike general report some 5 members of the community continue ,to fight *an imaginary', 1 foe—compulsory, vaccination j,. and he adds that"' until- that' clause (exemption) is removed from the Statute Book nothing but. an appeal to the common sense of the people can be permitted." These words read like the ; -soul of candour and verity itself; are they true! Is "compulsory vaccination" an. imaginary -foe? Dr. Mason points in proof to the Vaccination Act and to the- general., report for 1902. Now, first as to the said .Act, it is within a fraction an absolutely compulsory Act. It shadows with compulsion the " seven ages, the whole life of a man from the cradle to the ' grave— infant, schoolboy, the lover who wishes on the eve of marriage to insure his life, the soldier, the State officer, the aged poor who retire into charitable homes, and the convicts, who are retired into grated cells.. The only fraction .of freedom, is the " exemption clause." But mark libw small and how edged round with conditions, definite and indefinite! It was for a'-. period of six' .'monthsnow for only four. It demands an avowal before stipendiary magistrate or registrar of conscientious objection in the-be-lief that vaccination .would be injurious to : health; that this avowal be supported by a statutory declaration, and by such other evidence as the said official may think reasonable, and only when convinced such objection, exists may exemption be obtained. ■Thus the applicant is left entirely at .the'mercy ; of the opinion and prejudice of the official. How true this is! How : in England, under exactly the same provision, thousands ,of. fathers have had to endure brow-beating,, fines and imprisonments, and how these witnesses have already accumulated a mass of anti-vaccination evidence, you, sir, iintl many of your readers, know right well. ' It only requires . the general , appointment of Lyfcttilton officials— as those who prosecuted Mr. G. Laurenson, M.H.R.— reproduce in Now Zealand the same pitiful exhibitions of insolence and. tyranny.

In appealing to the general. report Dr. Mason is, I must admit, more candid than cautious. "What is the "disclaimer" therein? Is compulsion per se disclaimed? By jio means. Dr. Mason brings it out "at the point of, the bayonet" for the reader to look at and know that it is there, within the powers of the Department, and he only refrains from using it because inexpedient, premature, "too far ahead of public opinion!" But, presto! What he cannot prudantiully attempt by direct assault lie, may artfully carry by a twofold flank movement! On the one side, by a transfer of the right to grant exemptions "from the S.M. and registrar to the district health officer!" Happy suggestion! The "health officer" has, of course, a " special knowledge of the value of vaccination," and could not possibly be "prejudiced against the operation!" And then "not a tithe of the exemptions granted ■would be even asked for!" An exemption" would " become as rare as a dodo !" Then, on the other side—oh, august conception! Empower the Governor-in-Council to ' declare any area a vaccination area which, in the opinion of the health officer (the doctor, you see,'sir, like the parson, must be above the State) is "more than usually open" : t6 the introduction of smallpox For instance, a suspected, a Callaway casee.g., discovered (or alleged) in a vessel at the wharf,"'al\d Auckland may become a declared vaccination area, in which vaccination becomes that same moment compulsory. . But, sir, to name only another aspect qf compulsion which -Dr. Ma? son ignores, or of which he is willingly ignorant. The most subtle and irredeemable slavery is not physical or legal, but mental and moral. Regulate the light, its source and its amount; confine and press and hammer in only one side of a great and complex question; . abjure and conceal abuse and anathematise the other; chow but only one path; swear by method and blind and terrify the ignorant, confiding soul to follow that path or risk untold horrorsthat is at once the mightiest and the meanest forms of compulsion.

If Dr. Mason wishes an appeal to that common understanding and judgment to " convince logically," if he has any real confidence in his own cause, or a just sense of responsibility. in relation to " the people's money," he will forthwith publish " in a handy form, for the'people of New Zealand," an address by Dr. 'Hadwen, of Gloucester, delivered in 1896, _ and entitled "The Case Against Vaccination."— am, - etc., ■ • Edwin Cox. * Auckland, February 25, 1903.