The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, August 23rd., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1137, 23 August 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, August 23rd., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The action of the Victorian Board of Health in recently discussing a proposal that persons should produce certificates of good health before they are married, has provoked a good deal of criticism in Australia. At a meeting of the board the other day, one of the members, Mr Wood, said that in consequence of the proposal the board was told that it was a humorous body, which rushed in where the Medical Congress had not dared to tread. But one of the newspapers which had criticised the board had the other day published an article Irom its New York correspondent describing a marriage where the bridegroom produced a certificate of good health, and where the minister of the church had notified that he would require such certificates before h2 would celebrate any future marriages. Further, the article said that certain State Legislatures in America bad passed, or contemplated passing, legislation requiring that people about to marry must obtain certificates of good health. Mr Smith, another member of the board, said that the proposal would mean saving an enormous number of lives and great expense to the State. Why should they not do with the human race what they did with their flocks—try to purify them ? The chairman said that the board had sent to America for information relating to the legislation passed there, but had not yet received copies of those Acts, •