HEALTH SYSTEM PRAISED

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1928, Page 9

HEALTH SYSTEM PRAISED

VISITING SURGEON'S VIEWS TUBERCULOSIS DISAPPEARING. CANCER FIGURES NOT ALARMING. (By Wire.—Special to News.) Auckland, Last Night. With a wide experience of hospital work both at Home and in India, Sir James Reid Roberts, the famous surgeon who is at present holidaying in New Zealand, considers the Dominion sets a high example alike in system and efficiency. “I am a great admirer of the New Zealand heal'T system and also her medical institutions,” he said in an interview. The general standard of public health in Auckland and in other parts of New Zealand was another subject to which Sir James Roberts made interesting reference. He said the fight against tuberculosis was being waged successfully all over the world, and in England now the' death-rate under this head was as low at 10 per 10,000 of population. This, however, was high when compared with the New Zealand rate, which was only 5.7, the lowest by far of any country in the civilised world. Sir James referred to the prophecy of the president of the British Medical Association that tuberculosis would probably be extinct in 30 years. That, he said, was not an exaggerated statement. Questioned with regard to cancer, he said the increase in the registered mortality was due in a great measure to greater longevity amongst all classes of population. He was not alarmed by the eancer figures and did not think they showed cause for alarm.