The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1927. SEVEN THOUSAND T.B. CASES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1927. SEVEN THOUSAND T.B. CASES

A LEADING expert on the treatment of tuberculosis says it may be assumed with a fair degree of accuracy that there are about seven thousand recognisable cases of the disease in this country. Those who know Dr. C. J. Blackmore, superintendent of the Cashmere Hills Sanatoria in Christchurch will readily assert that he is not given to exaggeration or sensational argument. If liis estimate be at all near the actual extent of the scourge in New Zealand, it discloses a position that can only be described as a mockery of the whole system of hospital service and medical research. Let the facts be considered ip the light of common-sense. Here is a young country on the threshold of development. It has more natural advantages and opportunities for happy life than are given to many other countries. Its population of less than a million and a half has generous leisure and, proportionately, spends more time in the open air and at wholesome recreations than any other community,' with the exception, probably, of Australia. The people are better fed, better clothed, and, generally, better housed than the inhabitants of older lands. Such pest-ridden hovels as exist in the main centres are palaces in comparison with the slums of London, Manchester or Glasgow. Moreover, New Zealand uncomplainingly maintains twelve hundred physicians, a host of trained nurses, many special medical institutions; and it spends about £.2,000,000 a year on hospital and charitable aid. Yet one form of insidious disease alone scourges seven thousand of its inhabitants and kills nearly seven hundred persons a year. A grim consolation is proffered: Dr. Blackmore has made it clear that the country has every reason to be grateful that the death-rate from tuberculosis is not twice as high. The effect of the crusade against it during the past quarter of a century has been the saving of many lives.. It is good to know that some progress has been made. Still, we must come back to the lamentable truth that seven thousand persons are afflicted, and that only a few more than half the total number of sufferers are receiving adequate treatment. What is the multitude of administrators going to do about it? Dr. Blackmore asserts that “the ultimate defeat of tuberculosis seems so certain that it appears to be worth while making a determined and united effort in New Zealand to bring about that defeat at the earliest possible moment.” One may he permitted to smile at the phrase “Avorth while.” It is characteristic of local and general government throughout the Dominion. It is Avorth AA'hile talking about doing the right thing, but it is always a long time before the right thing has been done. There are at least one hundred and public hospital institutions in NeAV Zealand and many more hospital boards than are necessary. Most of these administrations shirk the responsibility of treating tuberculosis. The burden is thrust on Canterbury and Otago. Here, in Auckland, if- a person contracts the disease, it is necessary to leave the province to obtain special hospital treatment. The position is a scandal. All the authorities should visualise an assemblage of seven thousand T.B. victims at Eden Park, and then set to Avork in earnest to saA r e the majority of them.