THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With, which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY. FRIDAY. “Public Service.” FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1944. PRIVATE LIVES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32418, 14 April 1944, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With, which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY. FRIDAY. “Public Service.” FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1944. PRIVATE LIVES

“I had not intended yet to tell my friends the news but as the grocer boy knows of my condition and as all the clerks in the Rationing Office also and have had a good look at me I thought you might as well know too.” —Extract from a letter written by an Auckland woman. Not very long ago personal lives were as private as the recognised formalities and the neighbours’ curiosity would allow. To-day thanks to the tactless interventions of bureaucracy personal matters are becoming public property in a way that is rightly causing concern, if not anger. It is true the times are abnormal; the war makes all sorts of demands undreamt of a few years ago. It is equally true that if a little foresight and common courtesy were used in the drawing up of regulations inexcusable official prying into private lives could be avoided. To-day if one wishes to travel by train the reasons must be discussed fully and intimately with a railway official. If one is fortunate enough to sell a house or farm after revealing certain facts of his finances to a Land Court the price he is receiving becomes public property. If one suffers from a disease or illness requiring additional food rations rationing officials share the information with one’s doctor. And if an expectant mother is to receive the eggs she is entitled to the grocer’s boy and the rationing clerk are the first to learn the glad tidings. And so it goes on with one after another of the props of privacy being struck away, until if the war lasts long enough the precious right of privacy in personal life will exist no longer. Some of these interventions admittedly are necessary. But when the health of a person is no longer a private, personal matter the time has come to call a halt. Already the Taranaki medical profession lias protested against such official prying and when the Minister of Health is met by the doctors at New Plymouth this week it is to be hoped a vigorous protest against recent developments will be made. The solution is easy. The medical profession is a trusted one and the Health Department and the Rationing Controller should be prepared to accept a doctor’s certificate without the disclosure of any further information. —Taranaki Herald.