THE YACCIXA'f IOS QCESTIOy. .

Otago Witness, Issue 2848, 14 October 1908, Page 3

THE YACCIXA'f IOS QCESTIOy. .

A LAW FOR THE EDUCATED AND THE RICH. WELLINGTON, October 7. \ In the HoneS this * afternoon Mr Gray!, asked the Minister of Public < Health •whether, seeing that the registrar in - Christ-church still persists in summoning small batches, of jaersons for non-compliance with the compulsory clauses of the Vaccination Act, the Minister will kindly ascertain what method (if any) the registrar adopts in selecting' the riamos for prosecution? * ' The Hon. Mr Fowlds replied that tha registrar usually selects persons of education, who are in a position to pay a fine without undue hardship. Mr Gray characterised the reply as an extraordinary statement. It was -generally understood that the law was no respecter of persons, but now they had got a statement from a Minister of the Crown to the contrary. It was another penalty attaching to " education. Under the circumstances he urged the Minister to restrict "the operations of the act to millionaires. "The whole thing," he said, "was absurd, and during the recess be top^d they would Sear no more of the£e prosecutions. The act should be suspended until Parliament nest vcaT repealed it altogether." „ Dr Mason, the head of tlw Health -Department, apparently does, not share Mr Gray's views on the eubject of vaccination. In his annual report, he' again draw* attention to tbe- lamentable disregard to the law reJatipg. to vaccination, and ""states" fliat' 6n#' eight children out of every hundred born in 190? would appear to have been ■ successfully vacci"HafedT' StffflrNew Zealand, he adds, will • have the unenviable distinction of being the least protected of all countries.

— The song of the bird was originally a cry of alarm.