LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE MINISTER OF HEALTH CA JIOUFLAGLXG TACTICS. Sir,— The chief function of a political Cabinet seems to be to conceal the truth from the people, individually and collectively, this appears to be tiio chief role of Ministers, 'uf the Crown. Take the case of tho Minister of Health and his Department. They have' allowed a state-ment-purporting to bo oihcial-to be published in which the mortality from lnlluenza for the whole of <Jctob.;r, .November, and December up to the 17th (that is, over two ami a half months) is represented as (for Wellington) 5.14. i\'ow, our City Council jms published figures showing that in the month of November alono there were 700 interments and four cremations in tho public cemetery at Karori alone—this does not include the eoldieia who died at Featherfiton or the people buried in other cemeteries in Hie vicinity of Wellington. iNow, as the average, of burials at Karon is rarely above 80 per month, there can be no challenging the fact tliut considerably over GOO of the interments at lyirori (for the month of November alone) were, directly or indirectly, the result of the so-called "imiuenza epidemic." What, then, can the Minister mean by camouflaging the facts? I suppose one method of concealing tho real position is due to the "fancy names" assigned as the causes of death in the case ot those who died from "complications" accompanying or following influenza! Wow long is an intelligent community going to allow Ministers of the Crown to i°j? o? We '"'o being treated as children! Are we going to stand being tooled all the time? r I am, etc., VFRITA • I>- fv~ Tllo Minister's statements regarding the mortality at the other centres are camouflaged in- precisely the same way 1 hero is, I am credibly informed,-reason o believe that in Auckland no fewer than 2000 interments (during the epidemic) were the direct or indirect result ot .the epidemie.-V.