DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15183, 8 March 1923, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

Tha eminent Danish surgeon, Professor Thorlcild Rov-

Wonderful Feat by Danish Surgeon.

sing, in a lecture to the Medical Society of Denmark, has dis-

closed details of a highly interesting and successful operation which hb performed early in 1021. His patient was a woman of 34. Owing to trouble in the gullet, it was impossible for food to pass to the stomach in the natural way. Professor Ilovsing made a double incision down the skin of the chest, and, raising the two edges o< the skin lying between the two Incisions, wrapped them around a temporary rubber tube in such a way that when the edges of the skin joined together, they Hhcmselves formed a natural tube. The skin of the chest beyond the two incisions was then stretched over the exposed parts. Subsequently the upper end of the natural skin tube was, by a further operation, attached to the gullet, thus making a continuous channel for food. The complete operation took about six months, but it was the first of its kind, and future operations should not re‘quire so long a period. 'l’hc patient left the hospital in August, 1921, and is' now able to look after herself, her home duties, and her five children. Professor Rovsing has now two other patients under treatment, including a man of 44, who has had to absorb his food artificially for eighteen years.

In reading the speeches of Mr Holland and other Labour members' (remarks a contfcmnorarv) one

Ignorance or Misrepresentation.

is often at a loss to determine whether some of their statements are due to ignorance or to deliberate misrepresentation. The probability is that they do not as a rule wilfully distort the facts, but that they approach them with prejudiced minds, which cause them to overlook anything opposed to the views they hold. Take, for example, the following extract from a speech recently made by Mr Holland in Dunedin. The Government, Mr Holland stated, was making fortunes for the banks. By proclamation the war had not ended for New Zealand until 1920, and for five years after that the banks' note issue was backed by the State. Before the war the note issue was never more than £1,750,000; to-day it was £7,000,000 or £8,000,000. That meant that the State was making the banks a clear present of £7,000,000 or so for five years at 3 per cent., the usual charge for the note issue. Then the State borrowed back the money at 6 'or 7.per cent. That was high finance! It was the highly inflated currency that was doing much to keep up the cost of living. This accusation means that the Government Is allowing the banks to circulate , paper money, which costs them little, instead of coin, with the result that they make large profits. But if Mr Holland had taken \he trouble to look at the banking returns which are frequently published, or at the monthly abstract of statistics, which is to be found in every public library and every newspaper office, he would have found that during the period to which he refers the banks have almost always held coin and bullion in excess of the note issue. . The figures for the December quarter of 1922,.the latest available, are: Notes in circulation, £7,458,385; coin and bullion, £7,884,109. This means that if the went out the banks could replace notes by gold at a moment's notice. The huge profits which Mr Holland claims have been made by the issue of paper money only exist in his imagination. It is wild statements like that quoted above which make it impossible for serious people to accept Mr Holland as a politician who could safely be entrusted with the control of the affairs of this Dominion.