CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1916, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE SOLDIERS' HEALTH. General Henderson's statement regarding recent sickness at the military camps disposes of many wild rumors. The Director of Medical Services says that out of 20,000 men in the training camps since January J, 1010, 31 have died, 26 from sickness and five from accident. Putting aside the deaths due to accident, the mortality rate has been 1.3 per 1000 men for the half-year. Two men are suffering from pneumonia in the military hospitals at the present time, and the other cases receiving attention are of minor importance. The figures quoted by General Henderson are not negligible, but they ought to allay a great deal of the anxiety aroused by unofficial reports. The mortality rate is very much lower than the average of the British military camps, and it certainly is not higher than the Australian rate, though exact figures are hard to secure. It ought to be remembered in this connection that the training period in New Zealand is exceptionally short, consequently the effort must be concentrated. The syllabus of work is not harsh, but it is severe enough to discover quickly any latent weakness. A certain amount of danger from infectious disease appears to be inevitable in large camps. DOCTORS AND FRIENDLY SOCIETIES The quarrel between the friendly- societies and the British Medical Association in Wellington is not ended, and there seems every possibility that it will develop into a contest of an important character (writes our correspondent). The doctors, it will be remembered, demanded that the annual payment by the members of the societies for medical attention should be increased from 15s to 255, and that the list of special payments should be increased substantially. Tile societies, faced with additional charges totalling many thousands of pounds yearly, sought a compromise and invoked the assistance of the Minister for Internal Affairs, who presided over several conferences of the parties. But a settlement was not attained, and now the societies are paying the doctors' fees of their members in the ordinary way pending the next development, in the form of an attempt to establish "non-union" doctors in Wellington. Struggles of this nature have been seen in many parts of Xew Zealand during the last twenty years, and there is some likelihood now of an important precedent being established in Wellington.