FISH EXPORTERS AND FISHERMEN

Southland Times, Issue 23584, 11 August 1938, Page 4

FISH EXPORTERS AND FISHERMEN

MEETING TO DISCUSS DIFFICULTIES

PROBLEMS IN SOUTH TO BE CONSIDERED

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 10.

Difficulties which have arisen in the marketing of fish are at present being discussed at a conference in Wellington of fish exporters and fishermen, according to a statement made by the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in an interview this evening. The Minister said representations had been, made to the Government about certain difficulties which had arisen over the marketing and export of fish. Some of the problems which confronted the industry and those engaged in it were the subject of close investigation by. the Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee. “With a view to assisting the development of the industry on sound lines, a conference was called of representatives of fish exporters and. fishermen to discuss what steps might be taken to implement the recommendations of the committee,” said. Mr Sullivan. “Just recently certain difficulties have arisen in the south and these particular problems will also be discussed at the conference which is now taking place in Wellington. The responsibility of evolving a plan to overcome these difficulties will, of course, rest with the industry itself, but my department and myself are anxious to give any assistance we can and I hope that the conference will produce satisfactory results.”

liberally and generally provided as here. With our hospitals and outpatient departments, mental hospitals, sanatoria, maternity hospitals, special treatment units of the Health Department, subsidized'practitioners and district nurses, this country possesses, irrespective of contract practice and individual medical service, a public medical service of a scope already unrivalled anywhere. “In the opinion of the association, the necessities and responsibilities of treatment are being fairly met, excepting at one point, and that is in respect of those unable to make adequate provision for medical treatment, especially, the unemployed, disabled, ■ and aged poor, where treatment and care not of a hospital character are required in their own homes. “The association submits that it is only for this group that provision for treatment beyond those already existing or being developed is required. This requirement will be most effectively met by placing at the disposal of this group domiciliary medical attendance of their own choice, and nursing services where required, to the end that they may receive the same advantages as other members of the community. Such a proposal is castigated by members of the Government as ‘horrible,’ involving ‘discrimination,’ a poor-law system of ‘poor man’s service,’ and ‘undemocratic,’ and yet, identically the same principle of providing for the poor at the expense of the better off is adopted by the same Government, with less justification, in its superannuation scheme. EFFICIENCY ENDANGERED “The standard of medical practice in New Zealand is unquestionably high, higher indeed than that under national health insurance wherever practised, and New Zealand at the present moment has a quality of medical service better adapted to requirements than that provided under any national insurance system elsewhere. Is this to be wrecked? If the Bill is enacted in its present form, the British Medical Association, which, after all, is the only responsible body which can speak with authority on the subject, has no hesitation in declaring that the present efficiency will be gravely endangered, and that any measure which does that must operate prejudicially to the general health of the people of New Zealand. “This association deprecates the introduction of a system of contract practice on an extensive scale which would result in practitioners relying for a great part of their subsistence on it, and knows that such a system would not be appreciated by the public of New Zealand, long accustomed to a personal type of medical service, free from the regulations and restrictions inseparable from an insurance system.

“It is for these reasons that the association has recommended a restricted scheme, which fills a need, and disturbs as little as may be the system which has grown up over a period approaching a century in response to the special requirements of this country, ana has justified itself by showing statistics of general mortality, infantile mortality, and longevity which for years have been unsurpassed.”