CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 157, 20 November 1912, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE PRICE OF TUBERCULOSIS. In a recent lecture at Auckland Dr. E. H. B. Milson gave some interesting figures with regard, to the annual financial loss to the country owing to the ravages of consumption. The figures prepared regarding New Zealand are large enough to awaken serious attention, but when we turn to the tables which the lecturer has compiled, so far as Great Britain is concerned tho sum is astounding. It is hardly possible to conceive that the scourge of tuberculosis in England and Wales alone costs a capital loss of as much as £2G,000,000 per annum. Yet here we have the words of the speaker: "Dr. Arthur Latham had said that in England and Wales deaths from tuberculosis were a greater drain on the national resources than the cost of any great war had been to England. The relief of consumption taxed friendly societies £1,120,000 annually, the poor law £1,400,000, and private hospitals £500,000. This was a direct loss of over £3,000,000, and with indirect losses, such as loss of wages and ''life capital," which could not be less than four or five millions sterling, the total was well over £8,000,000, .ind had been put by some ■ authorities as high as £'2G,000,000. Whatever the sum was its intelligent expenditure would be of incalculable benefit, and would eventually save the country million of pounds a year." Quoting Dr. Newsolme, the lecturer said that if the earning capacity of the 33,340 workers annually lost .to the State in England and Wales were put as low as £1 per week the sum lost would be £1,033,380 a year, and this amount capitalised meant over _ £50,000,000. The method of approaching the consumption scourge from a purely financial point of view is not exactly novel, but it presents the case in an unfamiliar phase'to the public. It has been customary to talk more of the loss of life and suffering than of the hard cash side of the problem, but, after all, the new way is definite and straight to the point, and the result appears to show that judged simply from the standpoint of £.s.d. it would pay us to spend more generoasly upon preventive measures. The Official Year Book will give the public statistical information as to the deaths caused by tuberculosis in New Zealand, but Dr. Milsom's figures are more interesting. He says: "Taking as a basis the assumption that one in 250 of the general population was recognisably consumptive, there would be 4000 in New Zealand, including the children, or 2SOO excluding them, ranking as incapacitated workers. Putting their earning capacity at £2 per week, the yearly loss to the Dominion was over £290,000, which sum, capitalised at 4 per cent., meant a lost capital of over £7,000,000." Now, if that is the bill we have, to pay for the calling of the consumption toll in this country, it is pretty fair evidence that increased vigilance would be a paying proposition. The doctor points out that the disease is an infectious one. "It is not hereditary; the prevalence of consumption in certain families is due t6 the greater risk of infection to which the members are subjected when one of them has fallen a victim to the disease. What is urged is that the public should be roused to a sense ef its responsibility in the matter, not by an alarmist campaign, but by calm and serious consideration of the dreadful ravages being made by this disease, and of the methods by which it may be checked and stamped out." Last year, for instance, one death is eleven was due to tuberculosis, and this fact (as a contemporary points out) should help to impress upon the authorities the necessity for vigorous and definite action to insist upon great precautions in the way of preventing the spread of the infection.

BAIT FOR THE UNWARY. A new effort is being made to interest New Zealand people in the "Hamburg State Lottery," a gambling enterprise of a kind that is fairly familiar in Australasia. Circulars are being distributed widely through the post, presumably in violation of *he anti-gambling law, "and trustful persons are invited to send money to an address in Hamburg in the hope of receiving fortunes in return. "Referring to our strikingly successful results," says the circular, ""we beg to submit to yon, encouraged by an old customer of ours who has been constantly favored by the generally believed fickle goddess, a so-called preference offer, reserving for you a whole original ticket for the first class of the Hamburg lottery, entitling the holder to collect the prize likely to be allotted to the number. Note that the possibility of making sure of a prize is by no means so very narrow, if you consider that within a few months 46,020 prizes and eight premiums, with a'capital of 13,731,000 marks (say, about fourteen millions), will be definitely distributed among the holders of 100.000 issued tickets." This extravagant claim is followed by a warning that the stock of tickets is very limited and early application is necessary if the favored person is not to be left lamenting. The circular is accompanied by a specimen lottery ticket and a picture of a Middlesex laborer and his sweetheart who arc alleged to have won £ 12,100 by an investment of 6s. The promoters hope that their New Zealand friends may have "a real success at the very next drawing," and in the meantime they wait anxiously for the arrival of the money orders which they expect to receive. ft would be interesting to know how many New Zealanders will respond to this invitation.

THE DREADNOUGHT FARM. The Sydney Daily Telegraph has an interesting article on the work of the Dreadnought farm, not far from Sydney. This farm is so called because it is the home of a scheme by which the money raised privately to go towards building a Dreadnought for presentation to the Imperial navy is spent on hringing out British lads to Australia and training them at the farm for country life. ' It was originally intended that they should be imported at the rate of 500 a year, but there seems to be some difficulty in getting the right kind of lad. However, the farm is turning out some hundreds of healthy, fairly well-trained young fellows, between 17 and 20, to supply Australia's demand for farm and station labor. The lads are mostly from English towns, and some of them have no trade at all, so the material on which the farm works is quite raw. In a few months, however, these townbred lads are competent enough to go out into the Australian world and earn their own living. The Dreadnought farm carries on more- industries than any

other institution in the State, except the Hawkesbury College, and the pupils a fine all-round training. Considering the poor quality of the soil, and the fact that as soon as a pupil becomes •a competent worker lie leaves, the farm has done surprisingly well financially. It sold produce valued at £'2816 last year, besides supplying all its own -requirements in the way of food, and making improvement.to the value of £2OOO, and there was a balance on the right side of £OOO. The demand for these lads is several times greater than the supply, and it is stated officially that 9(1 per cent, of the pupils turn out well. One of the Scottish Commissioners said ii.ie institution was the best thing he had seen in Australia, and the Daily Telegraph naturally asks why the system should not be extended.