The Public Health Department seems to take quite a cheerful view of a question which the community has heard discussed more freely than usual of late in a manner which has not been calculated to allay uneasiness.
While welcoming the prospect of legislation designed to limit the spread of venereal diseases, the Department in its annual report refers to the prevalence of these diseases in this country as much exaggerated.
The community would be glad to think that this is the case, but it has heard too much on the subject to be lightly convinced.
A declaration that too much has been made of the menace of these diseases is, perhaps only what might be expected from the Health Department, in view of its own record in regard to the matter.
But it would be interesting to know what are the data upon which it bases its reassuring statement. There are none available, so far as we know, that are actually reliable. These diseases are not notifiable and no means exist of arriving at any direct evidence as to the measure of their prevalence.
The expression of an easy assumption that they are less prevalent than is commonly believed is not very convincing, and it does not convey the impression that the Public Health Department even yet grasps the gravity of the problem with which it will have to contend.
•"I think legislation will come on the question of exterminating flies, as it did in the matter of consumption,'' said Professor J. C. Johnson, in the course of his lecture at the Leys Institute in Auckland on "lies in Relation to Public Health''.
He added that when flies were most abundant the death-rate was highest, and as the flies fell off, so did the number of deaths. The co-operation of every housekeeper and others were essential for the destruction of the pest.
Professor Johnson also pointed to the reduced deaths from disease on the battlefield as the result of improved sanitary conditions, while with the absence of flies, infantile paralysis in New Zealand had been practically stamped out.
As a remedy for the mosquito, of which only the female was the biter, he suggested drying up swamps or flooding the surface with kerosene.
•At the Magistrate's Court, Lawrence, on Tuesday, four boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years, who were attending the Lawrence District High School, were charged with the theft of 19s 2d from the school on the night of the 14th inst.
Three of the boys pleaded guilty, but the fourth entered a plea of not guilty. This necessitated the taking of the evidence of each of the boys, with the result that the lad who had pleaded not guilty was held by the Magistrate (Mr Acheson) to be equally guilty with the others.
The hearing of the case concluded just before midday, and his Worship ordered the lads to be locked up in the gaol until 2 o'clock, when he would give his decision.
In the afternoon, his Worship ordered the youngest boy, who was an innocent participator in the theft, to stand down, and then proceeded to give the three older boys a lecture that they should remember for the rest of their days. The lads were discharged.
•Some time ago a deputation of women waited on the Hon. A. L. Herdman with a suggestion that women police and police patrols should be established in New Zealand.
The minister is at present still awaiting replies to communications he sent to England and America making inquiries as to the systems of utilising women as police in those countries.
- ODT, 29.6.2016.
