The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1921. SANITATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1921. SANITATION.

The address given by Mr. Fraser (chairman of the Taranaki Hospital Board) to the members of the New Plymouth branch of the Victoria League, on Monday evening, should be taken to heart by every householder in the district. The subject of public health was chosen as the theme, and inasmuch as it vitally concerns every member of the community, as well as being a factor in national life, special importance attaches to the subject. In the general way very slight attention is paid to sanitation matters unless as the result of an epidemic creating a scare, when there is exhibited feverish anxiety for reforms. The danger over for the time being, so is the enthusiasm for hygienic safeguards, and the inevitable relapse takes place, possibly with a decreased regard for those precautions which are essential to health. In some cases it is the inability to grasp the most simple laws of health. In others, people resign themselves to Fate. Always some sort of excuse is made by those who neglect their duties, and it is these who most fiercely resent being told what, they should and should not do to keep their homes and environs in a sanitary condition. This state of affairs is not peculiar to New Plymouth ; it is general, but if there is one portion of the Dominion which, owing to the favorable conditions that exist, should be comparatively free from the ill effects of insanitation it is the New Plymouth district, which has nd slums, and enjoys advantages as regards health that u re lacking elsewhere. . There are, unfortunately, insanitary dwellings in every town, but even these can be deprived of their worst features by scrupulous cleanliness and a full measure of fresh air, while their surroundings can be kept free from rubbish and garbage that breed disease. Poverty is a sad misfortune, but uncleanliness is a crime. Experience has proved that insanitary conditions are to be found in and around homes where such evils should least be expected to exist. One of the most fruitful causes of trouble to the health of the community is the ignorance or callousness displayed by parents relative to the isolation of children suffering from infectious diseases, and the frequent outbreak of epidemics among children attending school testify to the extent of this evil, while overcrowded class rooms intensify it. In the light of these circumstances it is not surprising to find that during the first eight months of last year over nine hundred eases of infectious diseases were notified in the district, the majority of the cases being, Mr. Fraser stated, “caused by the lack of proper sanitary conditions, particularly in regard to the children, who, during the last four years, constituted one-third of the patients at the hospital.” If there were a reliable record kept of the number of children affected each year by infectious and other diseases resulting from insanitation, the figures would be staggering. The pity of it is that this state of affairs fails to arouse the people to a serious comprehension of the evil. In appealing to the women for support and sympathy, Mr. Fraser seized on the only reliable means in sight for combatting insanitation. The home is peculiarly woman’s sphere of activity, and though, should such an organisation be formed as that suggested by Mr. Fraser, the members will have a task that will call for the utmost tact and diplomacy, it is to women we must look for help in a campaign against insanitary homes. The health authorities must do their share, and so must the municipal authorities, the latter being responsible for the two streams flowing through the town becoming polluted and evil-smelling festering sewers, from which the flies carry dirt and infection, and spread disease in the town. Probably the only hope of effectively coping with the evils of insanitation is by making the subject a special item of instruction at the schools, the course being continued right up to the end of the school career. It is an incontestable fact that the future of the country depends on the health of the people.