The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1892. Sanitation

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 76, 15 December 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1892. Sanitation

Since the recent outbreak of cholera in Europe the attention of medical men has been directed to the possibility of this terrible scourge being introduced into the Australasian colonies. Certain precautions have been taken in the principal seaports to prevent this, but as to whether they will be efficacious or not is as yet an open question. We are informed by the Wanganui Herald that Dr Hacon, of Christchurch, has contributed a paper to the New Zealand Medical Journal, in which he contends that it is the duty of medical men in 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. Dr Hacon contends that the Public Health Act, being of a permissive nature only, is useless, and our reliance on quarantine and disregard of local sanitation are mistakes. Of course the learned medico can suggest no other means to attain the desired end than legislation, and the appointment of a number of health officers. He asks : " How much is a man. better than a sheep ? Sheep have inspectors, and public baths, and dips— therefore we have a right to our inspectors, and to our public baths, and dips. Although put in a quaint way, there is much sound common sense in this idea. But the question yet remains — Do the people want to be forced from their uncleanness and their dirt ? When they are in terror of their lives by che actual presence of a plague among them, they will clamour for the Government to pass laws of the most fearfully stringent character — panic legislation — and for a time submit to the most vexatious regulations, but when all bave died who have to die, and a " clean bill of health " obtains, then they gradually drift back into their old state of uncleanness, and look on the interferences of health officers as unwarrantable impertinences. We admit at once that the first necessary step is to begin at the beginning by educating the children in sanitary laws so that the rising generation may be wiser in those respects than their parents. The desired reform can only be accomplished gradually, by the steady pressure of progressive knowledge.