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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16840, 11 September 1920, Page 2

A short time a.ge the State coal miners struck because the railway arrangements did not suit them and secured their demands. iSow the Waikato miners have realised the advantages of this method and have ceased work because their demand for n reduction of 60 per cent, in the railway faros has not been granted them. Only 200 out of the 500 men employed in the mines are. affected and the aggregate reduction in fares would only amount to £2O per week. The men earn 30s per day and thus arc submitting to a loss of £760 per day which would cover the cost of the concession demanded for about nine months 1 In the meantime the public are deprived of 1500 tons of coal per day. The owners of the mines are not concerned in the dispute und are entirely fu'eo from blame, and it seems that the object of the men is simply to keep the supplies of coal as low as possible. The best cure for the situation is to let the men sacrifice their wages until they acquire more wisdom, though it is hard on the public to have to pay heavily for letting them have the lesson tlfey need.

Rather a humorous incident has occurred in connection with the Health Bill which has recently been introduced into Parliament. Section 138 of the now Bill provides that school medical officers may enter public schools, examine the children, and notify the parents of any bodily defects. The section then stipulates that tho parent concerned shall obtain suitable .medical treatment, and that if he fails to take reasonable steps to do so ho ylicjl be guilty of an offence. This provision has been severely criticised by many newspapers and resolutions have been carried by many bodies condemning it as particularly harsh, since parents may not be able to afford tho treatment recommended. As a matter of fact this provision has been law for the last six -years and the Minister (the Hon. O. J. Pan') points out that the section has really been taken from tho Education Act of 1914, sections 134 and 135, which direct that any parent who neglects, after a second notification, to obtain for his child suitable medical treatment, may be deemed to be guilty of ciuelty. If anything the old law is more severe than tho new. The reason for taking the provision out of the Education Act and putting it in the Health Bill is to be found in the fact that the school medical inspection work has been incorporated in the work of tho Public Health Department.”