SOME "FLU" FACTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 701, 23 November 1918, Page 5

SOME "FLU" FACTS.

Fleeching Dr. Frengley. Dr. Frengley, Acting 1 Chief Health Omce.r, stationed m Auckland, has burst into print. He sent a lengthy article to the Auckland "Star" on Monday last. For fear the public might not know it was written by Dr. Frengley, the "flu" fellow, the medico supplied the paper with his tail. *Truth" is anxious that the doctor's merit shall not waste its sweetness on desert air and it supplies its readers with some matter as the "Star" published it. Here is the "tail," not the tale; the latter is to be found m the "Star": JOSEPH P. FRENGLEY, M.D., F.R.C.S.L, D.P.H., Deputy Chief Health Officer, N.Z., Acting Chief Health OfTicer.N.Z., Acting Inspector General of Hospitals, N.Z. Dr Frengley's foe is the "flu"; he is for murdering microbes, but he wants to be well paid for doing it. The doctor has been sixteen years m the health house. A chip from his chapter:— "I have been with the department for sixteen years, from the position of t\\& most junior medical officer m the least important district to the proud position of Acting Chief Health Officer. Public health is my hobby. I want none other." This paper congratulates Dr. Joseph for his rise and iiis interest m health, but the present time is hardly the psychological moment to CROW FROM HIS "MIDDEN- . HEID." The Chief "Doc" continues: "And what is the encouragement to good men to join the service, what is the future to men who see, on the one hand, the better opportunities m private practice, financial and without interference, and on the other hand, at the pinnacle of this State medical branch, a mere pittance of £950 per annum?" • Well, perhaps Dr. Frengley, M.D., etc., etc., etc., ad. lib., is worth more than £19 per week, but what is troubling "Truth" is tine position of the dirt man who is collecting Auckland's filth for less than a sixth of the doctor's salary. He runs a bigger risk. His work prevents disease, whereas the doctor can only "try" to cure it — alas, during" the last few weeks m Auckland many of the doctor's "tries" have been of less value than "tries" m a football match. THEY DIDN'T COUNT! But speaking 1 of the work of the voluntary helpers, the Auckland "Herald," says: This is how they have found it. They entered a hovel not more than a stone's throw from the Town Hall, and found there ten sick and dying men and women. Two of them were

laid out oh the dirty floor of a washhouse; others lay covered with rags, m stifling "rooms" just big enough to hold a stretcher. The rest were upstairs m a dark attic. The wallpaper i hung, m hideous strips from stained ! and dirty walls; the windows, tightly shut, were grimed and cracked, the . holes m them stuffed up with rags. Outside, m a tiny, corrugated iron shed, without light other than that which came through its cracks, a sick man lay on the damp ground, covered with two old sacks. No one had brought him food or medicine, and he was dying. In another squalid hovel six little children were found m one bed, unclothed, crying 1 for food; there was not a, morsel to eat m the house; the mother fay dying m another wretched bed beside "them. In yet another, a fn.mily of ten people, all sick, were found herded together m two rooms, Lonely men have been found dead and dying m cellars and garrets under conditions TOO TERRIBLE TO BE DESCRIBED, ' m places that could not even be entered until measures of disinfection were taken. In God's Own! In sunny New Zealand! The Working Man's Paradise! The leading democracy of the British Empire, if not of the world! And at such a time as this Dr. Frengley, New Zealand's Chief Health Officer, writes to the press and complains that he receives the "mere pittance of £950 per annum!" What a fine sense of the fitness of things! But with all due deference to ; his oliiefship or doctorship, "Truth" advises the Government and the people to leave Dr. Frengley's salary .where it is — until at least they

have time to reconsider whether he is not over- paid— and see to wiping out the conditions that make possible such things as those described above. Were the slums of Auckland razed to the , ground and made open spaces, such epidemics as thn city is now experiencing would be fewer and much less virulent. In this as m many another thing one ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure.