NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19419, 30 August 1926, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE COALOWNERS' CASE., : The attitude of the coalowners to the i miners' strike was defined by Sir Adam , Nimmo, vice-president of the Mining Association, in a speech in London last month. "However long this strike may go on," ' he said, "supposing it is conceivable that ■ it will last for another six months—l can s say quite frankly from an individual point ' of view, and also from the point of view 1 of the industry as a whole, that the demands of the workers in the mines cannot 1 be met". There were many people who ' said that if there was more goodwill in ' the industry and if there was a spirit of ■ understanding the crisis could be brought to an end. It was not a question of goodwill at all. If goodwill could have 1 averted the crisis there would have been ; no difficulty in finding salvation. After all, they were back on a fundamental economio problem which was viewed by the two sides from entirely different angles. The Miners' Federation had 6tood for years for nationalisation of the mines, and they still talked in terms of nationalisation, and the whole of their policy was influenced by that larger policy which had lain in the background for years. On the other hand, the coalowners had built up the collieries on the basis of private enterprise, and there must inevitably be an insistence on their part that if the collieries were to remain in the hands of private enterprise there must be freedom of movement. If the country was of the opinion that the mines ought to be nationalised, it would not find the coalowners standing in their way. Seeing that the country had almost unanimously decided that it would not adopt a policy of nationalisation, he and his colleagues were entitled to claim public support in seeing that the policy of private enterprise was ,not interfered with either by Governments or by the Miners' 'Federation. . A BENEFACTOR OF MANKIND. The Prince of Wales recently opened the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases, which has been founded to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the discovery by Sir Ronald Ross of the method of transmission of malaria to human beings. Its objects are to carry on research work in the prevention and treatment fof tropical diseases and to assist medical men to carry out research work. ' The Prince described the occasion as commemorating 'a definite achievement in the wotk which the British Empire has done for civilisation. "Not the least important obligation which the development of that Empire has laid on the members of our race is the constant struggle against disease in all the varied forms it can assume in different climates and in different latitudes," he said. "The struggle is always fiercest in the tropics, where man, and especially the white man, is the continual prey of diseases. Of all these tropical enemies, malaria has probably been the most deadly and elusive. But now, thanks to the achievement of one man, whose name we are perpetuating in this Ross Institute, its ultimate defeat is certain; Perhaps I am biassed by many visits to tropical and subtropical parts of the world where malaria is rife, and by having talked with so many men and women whose health has been shattered by a life's work in such' districts, but I can think of no .other single discovery in recent timeg which will earn the deep gratitude of so many thousands of human beings of all nationalities as the discovery made in India by Major Ronald Ross —as he was then —on August 20. 1897. All who have any experience of the tropics will know that there is still a vast field for scientific medical research, and here, with all the resources that modern science can provide, such research can be' effectively carried out, provided adequate funds are forthcoming. From this building may issue results which will bring back health to thousands who have lost it, or safeguard'the lives of countless others threatened by unseen dangers in tropical lands. • More than that, it may open out, for the use and benefit of mankind as a huge districts which are at present denied to civilisation." THE NEW MEDICINE. This tribute to Sir Ronald Ross comes very graciously from the grandson of King Edward VII., who in his famous challenge to the doctors, "if preventable, why not prevented?" gave the first great public impetus in this country to "the New Medicine," said the Times, in commenting on the Prince's speech. It is a safe statement that Manson, Ross, Bruce, , Leishman, Gorgas. C'astellani, Rogers, Christopherson, Leiper, and their colleagues have been instrumental in effecting an annual saving of life and of suffering equal to the entire toll of the Great War. Nor has their work failed to reach the knowledge of the public in temperate climates, and so to awaken the whole world to the need of action against all and every disease. While Ross and his colleagues laboured abroad, sturdy pioneers at home were trying to secure a pure water supply and decent drainage conditions. At first they had to fight against ,;public inertia and even against hostility. Ent little by little the public good will was won. To-dav, as a result, typhoid fever has all but disappeared. The doctrine of . cleanliness, both personal and domestic, has moreover abolished typhus fever ("gaol fever") and cut of food poisoning and infantile diseases to what, by comparison with other days, are insignificant proportions, ' while the provision of open spaces and facilities for exercise hasalmost completely abolished the. anaemias which used to take so heavy a toll of the health of women. That was the beginning of the greatest conquest which, man has ever accomplished.