The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1921 EDITORIAL NOTES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2443, 13 September 1921, Page 4

The Waikato Independent THE PAPER THAT COVERS THE WAIKATO. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1921 EDITO R IAL NOTES

The Waikato , Hospital.

The attempt being made to raise £IOOO towards the fund for the extension of the Bailey Consumptive Ward at the Waikato Hospital is a most deserving one, which we commend to the support of residents in this part of the Waikato district. Owing .to the closure of the Waikato Sanatorium, which, it is understood, will take effect very shortly; there is sure to be an extra demand for accommodation at the Hamilton Hospital, which for a long time past has been grievously overcrowded. The Hospital Board has done all in its power to cope with the everincreasing tax on its accommodation, • due to the abnormal growth of population in the very wide area served by the institution, but, owing to the Government' being unable to provide the money necessary for extensive addi tions~d to. the buildings, the insti

tution is quite inadequate for requirements. Thus, at present the hospital is filled to overflowing, with no immediate prospect of relief by enlargement. The Hospital Board, after very careful consideration, and consultation with representatives of the public, has made an appeal to the public to raise £IOOO by voluntary subscriptions. This money will bear a Government subsidy, and will be devoted to the extension of the Bailey Consumptive Ward. Already a generous response has been made to the appeal, and there seems every prospet that the amount asked for will be fully subscribed. If the money is not forthcoming, it simply means that the scope of the hospital will be restricted, and hardship will be done to many deserving cases. This is a humanitarian object that should commend itself to those who have been blessed with a fair share of this world's goods, and we trust that residents of the Cambridge district, which has earned , for itself an excellent reputation for its generosity, will assist this worthy project as liberally as possible.

The Synthetic Cow.

It seems like high treason, in a dairying district like the Waikato, to even suggest that there is a possibility of the "golden cow" being relegated to the background, but it is reported that Mr Henry Ford, the American motor multi-millionaire, has designs on the cow as well as on the horse, and proposes to find other work for the weary hours the farmers at present devote to "cow-spanking." Verily we are living in a wonderful age, and ; f the state of affairs forecasted by Mr Ford comes to pass, what will be the next thing to give way to the inexorable laws of science? In the course of a recent interview, Mr Henry Ford outlined a great new scheme of his for semi-rural machine shops. "The farmer will see the day," he says, "when both the horse and cow are done away with. The horse will go been use of the concentrated energy of automobile and tractor. . . It is a simple matter to take the same cereals that the cows eat and make them into a milk which is superior to the natural article and much cheaper. Our laboratories have already demonstrated that, cow's milk can be done away with and the concentration of the elements of milk can be manufactured into scientific food by machines far cleaner than cows and not subject to tuberculosis. A scientific food, such as I have described, will not only take the place of milk, but meat. As for the horse, he is a/fwelve-hundrcd-pound 'hay motor' of one horse-power. A little machine half his size will equal twenty of him. . . . These farming communities need their man-power, and improved mechanical farming methods will eventually give men time to think ,of other things than being held to crude farms, slaving through the winter for a few cows. They may work in one of our factories until the time comes to plant crops."