Repeal of the C.D.Act.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 861, 29 June 1895, Page 20

Repeal of the C.D. Act.

: — ♦ DR. BAKEWELL RENOUNCES THE NEWSPAPER PRESS. (To the Editor of the Observer). Sir, — I cordially agree with the argument in your leader of Thursday last. I firmly believe in the utility of the Act, not only in, to .some extent at least, lessening the amount of the diseases it takes its name from, but far more in preventing such -an enormous and rapid spread of those diseases, as we have seen in Auckland during the years the Act has been in abeyance, and in hindering the prostitution of children. I have argued about these matters in print before, and am not going to repeat myself. And yet I am about to sign the petition for the repeal of the CD. Act ! Lest 1 9hould be accused of inconsistency, allow me to say very briefly, that when people are such a set of fools as to be led by the nose by a parcel of ugly women, who never knew what it was to be tempted, and could not by any possibility tempt any man, then I : say that the people deserve all they get, ■ and that it is not to be expected that ! chemists and medical men, who largely = profit by the disuse or repeal of the Act, , should fight the battles of the public at their own pecuniary loss. I have done my ' little best to reform such things as I thought needed reform — very greatly to my own , detriment from the money point of view. Henceforth I am going to let this rotten , colony ' stew in its own juice,' and go to destruction in it's own way. And as a preventive of any action on my part, I have made a firm resolution not to read any N.Z. newspaper for six months. Anything : of real interest I shall learn from the English papers. Whether I shall be able . to survive the loss of your daily contemporaries and their brilliant leaders, dazzling with wit, I don't know. — Yours etc., R. H. Bakewell, M.D., Beach Road, Devonport, June 24th.