Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1910. VACCINATION AND SMALL-POX.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10153, 25 November 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1910. VACCINATION AND SMALL-POX.

1 The Vaccination Laiv in New Zea- ■ land is a farce. A. few years'back, vaccination was compulsory, and the number of children escaping the operation was few indeed. The late'Mr Seddon, yielding to a prejudice which had been largely created through the methods adopted by vaccination officers, of vaccinating one child- with the virus from another, amended the law in the direction of removing the obligatory clause. Any parent, on satisfying the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages that he conscientiously believed that vaccination would be harmful to his child, was absolved from legal responsibility. For a time, parents raised conscientious objections, but gradually they ignored the registration officer, until to-day hardly five per cent, of the people give vaccination a i thought; The Act is, in consequence, a dead letter. The matter crops tip ■ from time to time in Parliament, but no attempt is made either to revoke the existing legislation or to der maud its enforcement. An outbreak of small-pox in the Dominion would be a serious matter just now. The population would be decimated before one-tenth of the people could be vaccinated. If the authorities fail in | their duty, and neglect fo enforce the law, it devolves upon every citizen to accept his and her personal responsibility in the matter. The fact that the Dominion has been immune from malignant disease during the last few years offers 110 guarantee of security for the future. An outbreak of small-pox might occur at any moment, and scores of lives j might be sacrificed to the plague. Is | the community prepared to take the [risk? The most eminent medical authorities assert that /the greatest safeguard is vaccination. Are' we going to ignore this aclvice and. defy the law for purely sentimental reasons? Do parents not feel a moral obligation towards their children iu

the matter? If t-liey do not, it is time they did. The virus which is now used in vaccinations permits of 110 transmission of disease from one child to another. It is guaranteed absolutely pure. There can, therefore, be no longer a prejudice on this score. The position is so very serious, that the Legislature should insist upon the rigid enforcement of the law. If the Act is allowed to remain a dead letter, as in the pas?, Parliament will be morally culpable in the event of a calamity.