A Bitter Lesson.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 21 November 1918, Page 1

A Bitter Lesson.

Describing Palmerston's fight with the epidemic the Manawatu Times sayis: Families were sick unto death through lack of food, medicine, clothing, care, and, cleanliness; they were prostrate with this fell disease. A depot was established from which supplies of garments and nourishment were immediately despatched, and so they were clothed and fed. Doctors and nurses are •working untold hours, and unregistered nssiPtanta are valiantly coming forward to assist. Women of all classes and conditions have rolled up their sleeves and joined the ranks or the workers. Unhesitatingly they have entered homes where dirt and disorder have nourished disease. They have scrubbed! and cleaned 1 and nursed, and they have transformed these homes and given the patients housed therein a fighting chance of life. Work has practically ceased, except among absolutely essential Industrie*l, and money-mating, for once, is subordinated to the struggle for life and (health. Numbers of motor cars stand outside the depot, ready to speed to any point, on any mission of succour, distributing food andi clothing, conveying doctors, nuirees and assistants, and in .a dozen ways facilitating the work. Carpenters have come forward voluntarily andi built two wards affording temporary accommodation for 70 additional patients at the Hospital'. Women who cannot give their time, make soupis andi custards, men give eggs and fruit, otheim give money for the purchase of goodp. Chemists work all night making up prescriptions, girls contrive needful clothing, boys run urgent messages, each one contributing to the successful working of the-whole sobteme. The Empire Hall' has been turned into a children's hospital and 26 Tittle children, many mere Infantp, are being tenderlv nursed. Midnight finds a solitary soldiier in charge of thse babies. He blushes the piteous cry of one. mixes the "bottle" for another, and bestows all necessary attention on the poor little sufferers, giving them almost maternal oare. Nothing spectacular about it, but it is the work that is helping to win this war—for health " and peace. Perhaps if time permitted, a wiser distribution of labour might be effected, and! matrons who have reared families might replace the sdldiers in the. babies' ward. But as it is, each one jr> doing the work assigned and doing_ it to the best of his or her ability. Pacing thie common peril hap consummated! the spirit of unity, which' was first engendered in the days of the war. It has brought realisation to the unthinking, and the evils of our social system, which has permitted ignorance and dirt to foster pestilence can no longer be ignored. This working .shoulder to shoulder has brought one-time warring elements into harmony, and the latent good in many has Beien reveated. When the Tast trace of the epidemic has been wiped out, and the people regenerated. return to thteir normal avocations, the lesson thus taught must not' be forgotten. No longer can ignorance ol the true facts be pleaded in extenuation of apathy displayed. Our eyes have been opened, and we must not shrink from the great task ahead. Let us bo build the future that the errors of the past cannot be repeated, and with a dearly-bought wisdom ensure the future safety of ourselves and our town;.