The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1927. IT IS A SCANDAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 47, 18 May 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1927. IT IS A SCANDAL

MEMBERS of the Auckland Hospital Board were asked by their chairman, Mr. W. Wallace, last evening to believe that THE SUN’S reference to the position regarding the provision of adequate treatment of tuberculosis, cancer, and other chronic cases of grievous disease “as a scandal” was . unfair, unkind and inferentially out of line with the truth. It is to be regretted that a leading local government administrator should be so tender under the touch of fair and essential criticism. Time enough to wince when the lash has been applied to a thin skin. Lest there be any further doubt as to the necessity for plain criticism let us say again definitely and without any qualification whatever that the position is a scandal. Indeed, it is rather more than a scandal and a reproach. It is three scandals in one, for the simple reason that the greatest district in the Dominion, holding about a third of the whole country’s population, has no sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis as it should be treated, has anything but sufficient and adequate accommodation for cancer patients, and cannot always find beds for chronic sufferers. Will Mr. Wallace emphatically deny that Auckland T.B. victims have been compelled to go far from home for sanatorium treatment and thus incur extraordinary expense and the misery of loneliness among strangers, that he himself in the past has confessed emotional distress at the Auckland Hospital Board’s inability to provide accommodation for cancerous cases, and that Dr. H. Cbesson, medical officer of health at Auckland, was right in informing our representative last month that “he had been unable to place chronic sufferers for whom there was no room at Epsom”?

Scores of sufferers in Auckland to-day are unable to procure the right treatment for tuberculosis because the Pukeora and Otaki institutions are too far away. Hundreds of people are menaced by the scandalous neglect of these cases. There is no greater authority on the subject in New Zealand than Dr. C. J. Blackmore superintendent, of the Cashmere Hills Sanatorium in Christchurch, and he has said that there are about seven thousand recognisable cases of T.B. in the Dominion. Auckland’s quota must be considerable, and obviously far too large to be neglected.

In any case, it is past time for the Auckland Hospital Board to play the part of the cuckoo. It would be better for Mr. Wallace, as the best local government administrator in Auckland, to curb his peevishness and add to his fame by making an end to a scandal.

REINFORCING AUCKLAND’S POLICE

STUPID references to Auckland’s “crime wave” because shop burglars have recently been a little more active than usual and Commissioner Mcllveney is transferring five detectives from the South to this city to “clear it of the criminal element,” would give strangers the idea that this is a very wicked centre. It isn’t.

Throughout the Dominion within the last ten days persons have appeared before various police courts charged with embezzlement and peculations exceeding £50,000. Auckland’s share of this has been a few cases of sliop-raiding and petty thieving—a mere flea-bite when the whole situation is considered. Auckland has grown and progressed at a rate far outstripping other New Zealand cities, and there are those who already delude themselves that it is another Sydney or San Francisco. Whenever an unguarded suburban shop is robbed of a roll of cloth, some tins of tobacco, or sixpenn’orth of sweets, these people talk of “the crime wave,” picture hold-ups in Chicago, and throw their revolver-hands back to their hip-pockets. There is really nothing to attract first-class “crooks” to Auckland. The field is too limited, and you couldn’t bring a star performer from one of the big cities of the world without the guarantee of a rich haul and a safe “getaway.” At the most, Auckland has a few thieves, some of whom have the temerity to break into shops by unscientific methods and carry off a postage stamp, and one or two persons with hazy ideas on the ownership of motor-cars.

Those who are so concerned about dishonesty should call on the Government to protect the public funds, which are being so frequently and lavishly embezzled by Government servants, seemingly as the result of lack of any adequate system of safeguard. The police might then have more leisure to' devote to outside crime.

Does Auckland need “cleaning-up ?’’ In a nutshell, the position is rather that the police work of a big city has been in arrears owing to under-staffing, and that the five detectives to be brought here are merely to bring the local force up to normal strength for the performance of normal duties.

MOTORIST AND PEDESTRIAN

THERE are two sides to every question, and those who are inclined to throw the entire blame of every accident on to the motorist will do well to reflect on the remarks of Mr. Justice Herdman at a recent trial.

“People who use the streets,” said liis Honour, “are under the duty of keeping their eyes open, and drivers are also required to keep a proper lookout, and to drive at a proper speed.” Though there is no doubt that far too many drivers are careless, and that by far the greater number of accidents are due to speeding, quite a number of pedestrians are injured through their o;vn fault. They cross the road without care, they emerge from the rear of a tramcar without first looking to see what is coming the other way, and they walk on to crossings or step suddenly from footpaths on to the roadway. Often they step into the course of a motor-ear before the driver has time to pull up—and there is a case for the hospital, or worse. Accidents will be avoided and a better feeling exist between motorist and pedestrian if each will do his duty to himself and his neighbour by taking that care which is demanded by the circumstances of modern, traffic.