The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, August 5th., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1129, 5 August 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, August sth., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

In Auckland there are only eighty doctors. Twenty thousand of the population of the city have been vaccinated, and so many people are seriously ill as the result of vaccination that there are scarcely enough doctors to go round. Several leading medical men, seen by a Star representative on Wednesday, stated that never in their experience had they known such seiious results to follow vaccination. Patients are ill in bed, racked with excruciating pains. A marked constitutional disturbance —rise of temperature, headache and general malaise —is naturally to be expected, particularly amongst adults who have never been vaccinated before, but during the past three weeks a large percentage of Auckland people who underwent the operation have suffered very seriously indeed. Temperatures as high as 104 have been quite commonly reported, followed by all kinds of extraordinary complications. The reason cannot be ascribed to lack of care on the part of vaccinators, since in more than one case doctors report dire consequences in their own homes. One instance is quoted in which two members of a doctor’s household have been in such pain that morphia has had to be injected to induce sleep and relieve suffering.

The Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill, which has been circulated, gives Councils power to purchase and sell coal or coke on any terms they think fit. If this clause is passed the way will be clear for Cr Chrystall’s notice of motion re empowering the Council to establish a municipal coal depot. The question, however, needs the most careful consideration by the Council. A municipal coal depot would naturally tend to keep the retail prices of coal within reasonable limits, but it is questionable whether it could undersell present retail rates.

Speaking at Christchurch on Sunday (says the Press) on “Responsibility of Fatherhood,” Lady Stout said that much attention had been paid during recent years to the responsibilities of motherhood, and great stress had been laid on the necessity for training girls to bear the duties of wife and mother. In the speaker’s opinion, however, sufficient attention had not been paid to the necessity for fitting men to fulfil their obligations as fathers. The father’s sense of responsibility needed awakening in three departments. In the first place, he needed to be reminded of his responsibility to his children. His obligation did not cease when he had provided them with clothes, shelter and education. The father’s influence should not be confined within four walls, but the children bad to be protected when they went out to face the temptations of the world. If the fathers did their duty in this respect, the white slave traffic and many other social evils would soon disappear. Fathers needed reminding, too, of their duties as citizens. They had to pay heed to municipal reform and to make their towns cleaner and healthier for their children. What was needed in men was a healthy body, a healthy mind and a pure heart. These had been demanded in mothers, but the ideal homelife would not be reached until both men and women were equal in this respect.