BARBERS' METHODS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8554, 12 October 1907, Page 5

BARBERS' METHODS.

SOME PROPOSED REFORMS. CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER'S VIEWS. ' . For some time past Dr. Mason, Chief Health Officer, has been endeavouring to bring into force health regulations in connection with barbers' shops. His suggestions have been laid before the various hairdressers' associations in New.i Zealand, with the view to action being taken in the direction of getting , municipal by-laws framed on the lines proposed by him. The luvercargill Borough Council has recently brought in such by-laws. Spca'dng on this subject at Auckland, Dr. Mason a'.d that the main provisions that had been adopted in Invercargill, on his suggestion, were jthe licensing of barbers; Departmental approval of rooms; clean towels; the 1 sterilisation of brushes; the removal of hair after every operation, instead of it being left in baskets in a corner all day; and the non-use of the puff. Another provision was the abolition of the block of chalk, or alum, used after shaving. Each man should have a given quantity of chalk set apart for him. Each operation in the barber's shop should be selfcontained. A surgeon did not use the same instrument on two patients without sterilising it. Nor did he use the same lint or ointment,-nor the same towels. In shaving, more especially, each operation ihould be self-contained. An easy way to avoid the use of the same overall, or gown, for each customer, would te to procure serviettes of Japanese paper, ! that could be destroyed after use. There should be no possibility of the transmission of anything from one customer to another. The un--1 fortunate thing was that as soon as ( one tried to suggest these health pre- • cautions to some barbers, they raised their prices. "I casually observed to one man," said the doctor, "what I thought ought to be done in his place, and he charged me a shilling. - He got back at me." The doctor went on. to.state that in Auckland the barbers were quite willing to do as he suggested. In return for their observance of the rules outlined, howevei-, most of them said they should be a close corporation—that the outsider should be cut off. That, he thought, was quite fair. If responsibilities were imposed upon any tradesman it was only fair to conserve his business. Barbers had complained to him that whilst the better men would observe these health rules they might charge more, though they would be willing to charge present rates if there was no competition with the threepenny man. His idga in approaching the hairdressers' associations on this matter was that they in turn should get the local bodies to frame the requisite by-laws, as had been done in Invercargill. They had power to do so under the Municipal Corporations Act. He found the leading barbers in the Dominion quite in accord with his views. All they wanted was that all the trade should be bound by the same rules. The Wellington Hairdressers' Association intended taking up the question. They were to hold a meeting, which, on his return, he was ■to address on the subject. As to the enforcement of such rules as he had outlined, Dr. Mason thought it much better left to the iocal bodies.

CABLE NEWS.

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