Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY,DECEMBER 14, 1892. THE SANITARY DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8064, 13 December 1892, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY,DECEMBER 14, 1892. THE SANITARY DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND.

The above is the title of a paper lately contributed to the New Zealand Medical Journal by Dr W. E. Hacon, of Christchurch, iv which he strongly contends that it is the duty of medical men throughout New Zealand " to quicken the sense of duty " of their patients and neighbours in all matters relating to hygiene until such time as the State recognises the necessity of instruction, in matters relating to health, in the public schools. We may look with confidence for intelligent, active andwillingsupportfromtho ministers of all religious denominations in our endeavours to promote by means of local sanitation the welfare or the brother and the brotherhood, and if the ministers will support and assist it 1 the formation of branches of a National Health Society in th& ■various towns of New Zealand, in order to diffuse the knowledge of the laws of health in every possible way among all classes of society, Deuteronomy will not have been written in vain. Dr Hacbn further says :— -The New Zealand Medical Association, both in Congress and at its branches, discusses hygiene, but doctors cannot make the laws, and are vainly endeavouring to pass tbe Medical Act to protect the public from fraud and imposition. Our Public Health Act, being of a permissive nature only, it)

useless ; our reliance on quarantine and disregard of local sanitation, with proper officers of health,are mistakes. If the shores of New Zealand are worth defending from a possible foreign invasion, the people of New Zealand are worth protecting troin those energies which have already invaded and will continue to invade this colony — disease and dirt — the camp-iollowers of civilisation. Can we not agree that — 1. The medical peers of the New Zealand Parliament should be consulted officially on all medical matters by the Ministry in power. 2. The Minister, acting as chairman of the Wellington Board of Health, should be' always in active office as a Minister of Public Health, with all the public health officers reporting directly to him, under his control, and independent of local boards. 3. Each province requires the presence of a trained and expert medical officer of health— forming another sanitary cordon of defence behind the port medical officers — actively engaging in the work of local sanitation and inspection of physical education. 4. Every intercolonial passenger steamer should carry a medical officer. 5. Every large public school in the colony Bhould be provided with a medical inspecting officer. 6. The inspector of vaccination ought to be am oxpert medical officer. Tho subject cannot be hidden from view, neglected or laid aside. Health officers (men-inspectors) must be appointed. How much is a man better than a sheep? We have a right to our inspectors, and to our public baths or dips. The ancient Lawgiver did not disregard the laws of health. Must we first be visited by plagues before our rulers will enforce the laws which will save us from those diseases which are easily eradicated from communities sufficiently civilised to take advantage of known laws, which have been learnt only from past miseries and formulated in consequence of bitter and sad experience. We must make the New Zealand Legislature recognise the care of the public health as its duty, just as we have made it recognise the care of the insane as its duty. Let the progress of New Zealand sanitation be the greatest glory of this decade. Let 1900 see every large town provided with a Sanitary Board for the promotion of prophylactic hygiene. In the American cities until recently the mayor and council were invested with the functions of health officers. Nowadays America has local, State, and national boards of health. The growing preponderance of physicians in State and municipal legislation is to be noticed in other parts of the civilised world. Incidentally, attention is drawn to the value of a Provincial Botanist, meaning health and wealth to the province, and it is also mentioned that the University of New Zealand should educate muscle as well as brain — enlarge the body as well as the mind. Sir Walter Foster, who has been chosen by the English Premier as leader of a little band of medical men who should take an active part in the beneficial government of the country, recently delivered a speech (reported in the British Medical Journal) in which he aaid, "I look forward to the politics of the future doing much to relieve human 'misery and lessen human suffering." Mr Gladstone, too, in a speech delivered in 1878, Baid, " tho__medi6al profession is to have & ,far larger share in the future as the leaders of public thought." The results achieved by boards of health in other countries ought to inspire our countrymen to more public spirit and enthusiasm in the promotion of undertakings designed to protect the people from the causes of disease. Let us be wise in time.