NOTES ON NEWS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 109, 5 December 1918, Page 4

NOTES ON NEWS.

The widespread use of.formalin during the present epidemic has been condemned by no less an authority than Dr Makgill the Chief Health officer. Speaking to a " Dominion" reporter he said: "The use of irritating antiseptics such as formalin is to be deprecated owing to the fact that they cause irritation and rawness of the mucous membranes, and therefore induce bacterial trouble. Formalin especially has been used and is causing a great deal of unnecessary suffering." In the officer's opinion an antiseptic should •oothe and not irritate and this opinion will win ready corroboration from those who have made intimate acquaintance with a strong solution of formalin. The discontinuance of its use should be speedily brought about if it does more harm than good.

The shortage of commodities caused by the war has turned the minds of most people to the subject of thrift. For some months before the cessation of hostilities the Home Government issued through the newspapers a series •f short notes on how to save on laundry, boot, coal and other bills. They were very good. Now, we have Professor Henry Spooner . telling us of the enormous waste 'which goes on in nearly every direction. In numerating a few lines he mentions matches, and declares they onght to be made to strike at both ends. Then we are told that the rag pickers of Paris earn £660 a year out of bits of string found in the rubbish boxes, and that if the tram and 'bus tickets used in London vehicles were all dropped in boxes and collected they would fetch £6 a day. The surprising thing is that so many people are poor with so much latent wealth around them.

Everybody these days is interested in the cost of living problem, and for that reason will concur in the opinion expressed by Mr Justice Stringer when presiding at the Arbitration court at Dunedin. It seemed to him, he said, that raising wages in correspondence with the increased cost of living was more or less like chasing a will-o'the-wisp. The court raised the wages, and after a year found the position no better. None will deny the truth of this. No one works for actual money—it is for that which money can buy. Most people are getting more money but it buys less than it did, and it is no proper solution to raise wages and the cost of goods alternatively. This is a neck-to-ntok race which imparts no •atiifying thrill to the poor. The Government needs to fix the prices in many instances—this would do more good.. A committee has already been appointed in Auckland to arrange a suitable programme for the celebration of peace, and a tentative programme has been drawn up. It is suggested that the celebrations commence on a Sunday with the holding of thanksgiving services in the churces, then would follow an elaborate pro- . gramme of secular forms of celebration. The fact that steps are being taken in other places may cause the Town board to take action. Postponement rarely ever * leads to efficiency. The pent-up joy of the populace must not be denied adequate expression through lack of suitable means being provided. It has been a great war, and peace has been made possible at great cost. ' For these reasons the celebrations should be on a Urge scale, and it is not too soon to set about arranging the menu - for the coming feast of joy. ■milium limn" ' The establishment of a quarantine station at Auckland is likely to be an accomplished fact as a result of experience gained from the epidemic. It is impossible to reckon what being without one has cost the community. In spite of Ministerial assurance to the contrary, there are many who ■till have a deep-rooted conviction that failure to quarantine the Niagara was responsible for not a little of the suffering and death wrought by the epidemic. Whatever may be the truth it cannot be denied that experience is a costly teacher. But the establishment of a suitable station will go far toward giving the public the guarantee against another epidemic which it likes to possess. That Australia should" be comparatively free from the influenza is significant when its quarantining regulations are kept in mind. No doubt this has been a factor in the hardening of public opinion in the Auckland province.