THE STATE IS SICK

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 459, 17 February 1933, Page 2

THE STATE IS SICK

MEDICAL JOURNAL COMMENTS ON PREYAILING CONDITIONShomily on present ills. "The State is sick and the political doct'ors and doctrinaires have many a nostrum to apply," observes the New Zealand Medical Journal in editorial comhient. "Certainly," it adds, preventiori would haVe heen better than cure, hut now it might he well to rely on • the 'vis medicatrix naturae' and quit meddling. There is apparently no cordial or carminative to stop inflation, nothing vital in the sanctity 0f a contract, and no patriotism to coordinate members of the same hody politic at varianee. ' It is like a case of locomotor ataxia. Costs 'rise aiid incomes fall, ahd there is no certainty in the future for realists but only" for optimists and pessimists. As has been well said, "Credit is a bubble ^hieh hiirsts every minute, secufitiee become insecUrities, and real esfate becomes unreal under our feet.' "It may be relevant for doctors to inquire how does all this affect the physical and mental well-heing of the people. Do they sleep o' nights? Can they masticate their food? Are inortgagees living on aspirin? Many people believe that nothing better can be done until this system is swept away in the fullness of-time. Of course we might re'ad Jeans and. Sir Robert Ball and get off the earth' in that way As much as possible, and so perhaps miss •a full sigh't of the denouement here, or end the whole business with a hare bodkin and the deep damnation of our taking off. Fortunately eighty-five per cent. of the people do not thuik themselves, aiid many who thihk are impotent, so that apathy and! iriipotency save th'e nerves of the people ahd preserve their self-esteemi "Let us work as "if the sun of prosperity were shining, for work# is the greatest anodyne we can prescribe ifi the circumstahces. We can pass the grbss and corrupt elements of livihg through the alembic of the' mind and turn them into new channels of thought and feeling. There are hooks f dr the thouglitfui ahd f ot the thoughtless to take readers oht of themselves, and there is Nature still hountiful ahd beautiful to enjoy, and pleasant i thoughts, for those who do not for- [ g'et the holiday spirit, wa'fted oh every hteeze.