The Christchurch Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1929. THE CURE OF CONSUMPTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18936, 5 December 1929, Page 8

The Christchurch Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1929. THE CURE OF CONSUMPTION.

npHE VERY CONFIDENT CLAIM that a cure for consumption has been discovered in Auckland must be received with extreme caution. There is a reassuring air of sincerity about the manner in which the discoverer of the supposed specific offers it at cost price to all sufferers from the disease, but on the other hand medical experience discounts the possibility that any disease will respond, as Dr Acland put it in Christchurch last week in regard to cancer, to some simple remedy that may be taken from a bottle three times a day. The preparation, whatever it is, ought to be given a very full trial by medical men,“and in its bearing on research work, the process of manufacture ought to be disclosed, seeing that the discoverer has taken up the very praiseworthy attitude that no profits must be made from it. As a matter of fact, a claim of the kind should not be made, publicly at any rate, until it has had the fullest expert investigation. The fact that the discoverer is a clergyman adds nothing to and subtracts nothing from the validity of the claim, which can be proved only after an extended test under the proper conditions. The correct procedure in such a case is to supply the formula to competent authorities with a request that the efficacy of the cure should be tested. The danger of a claim of this sort is that it may tempt sufferers to neglect the advice of medical men and to waste invaluable time experimenting with Mr Ward’s powders .when they might be undergoing the treatment that has already proved so efficacious. New Zealand, indeed, thanks to a definite campaign which was started twenty years ago, has now the lowest death-rate from consumption in the world. The total deaths have decreased from 832 in 1918 to 668 in 1927, and over a five-yearly period the death-rate in New Zealand stands at 5.44 per 10,000, and in Australia 6.00, compared with such high figures as 10.6 in England and Wales, 20.3 in Japan, and 28.4 in Hungary. The low figures for New Zealand and Australia are an indication that fresh air and sunlight and the absence of congestion—which of course means less infection—are the greatest factors in fighting the disease, and there is every reason to believe that at the present moment New Zealand has a definite prospect of stamping out consumption from among its people. It may be that some specific may be discovered to assist in a measure in the campaign, but claims like those from Auckland, as we have said, should be received with extreme caution. INTENTIONS AND RESULTS. ' I ''HE RED DEER, introduced for sport, has now become another rabbit in the destruction that it causes. The report brought back by a party of engineers who visited the Doubtful Sound area gives a very doleful account of the damage that is being done to the forests by the red deer which infest the region in enormous numbers. The country is broken and inaccessible at present, so that it is hopeless to think of adopting any ordinary means of getting rid of the pest, and there seems to be nothing for it but to allow the animals to continue their depredations. The deer already present a serious problem in many districts, and it is going to cost the country a great deal of money to keep their numbers down. This is only another example of the way in which results so often conflict with intentions. The rabbit and the sparrow and the Scotch thistle and dozens of other pests were introduced with the best of intentions and the worst of results. Stoats and weasels were introduced to kill the rabbit, and they have killed off native birds instead. “ Natural enemies ” have been eagerly sought for certain pests regardless of what the newcomer was to subsist on when he had eaten out his victims, and so the hunt goes on. Some day New Zealand will call a halt regarding the introduction of pests, in any guise. Some of those we have already may never be rooted out, and others will call for enormous expenditure for their extermination. BRITAIN’S DRINK BILL. A LTHOUGH Britain consumed 20,000,000 barrels of beer -**• last year, the figure was the lowest since the duty was raised in 1920, and there has been a concurrent increase in tea drinking, which now brings the total consumption of that beverage to 412,000,0001 b. These figures, which are conveyed in a brief cablegram to-day, are a very welcome reminder that Britain is becoming a more temperate nation. Dr Llewellyn Williams, chairman of the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union, declared a few weeks ago that wonderful progress had been made in Great Britain during the last decade in the direction of temperance reform. The national drink bill had dropped from £436,000,000 during the peak year of 1920 to approximately £298,000,000 in 1928, and the consumption of alcoholic beverages had been reduced by nearly one-half in spite of an increase in population of 15 per cent since 1920. He put this down in part to the high prices still prevailing for stimulants, in part to the shorter hours in which the trade was permitted to carry on its business, and in part to the counter-attractions provided by the cinema and other forms of entertainment. From a Blue Book just issued for England and Wales, one learns also that there has been a very marked decrease in the convictions for drunkenness, the total for 1928 reaching the lowest level on record except during 1917 and 1918, when millions of men were serving with the forces abroad and supplies of intoxicating liquor for the home population were drastically curtailed. The figures are interesting as an evidence of the influence of moderate opinion in regard to the use of alcohol, and also of the value of educative work in the interests of temperance reform. When Great Britain can show such striking figures as these, the permanence and value of evolutionary progress is strikingly exemplified.