SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1939, Page 4

SOCIAL SECURITY

f PROTEST MEETING OF WOMEN AT PAHIATUA. / RELATIONS OF DOCTORS AND PATIENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.' PAHIATUA, This Day. A meeting of 250 women held yes-' terday was addressed by Mrs T. R. Barrer, M.A., of Masterton, and Mrs R. Miller, of Kopuaranga, on the subject of Social Security benefits in their entirety. At the conclusion.of the meeting, the following resolution was carried by acclamation: “That this meeting of women protests against the provisions of the Social Security Act, especially the clauses relating to women:— (1) Because it does away with the confidence engendered by the old friendly relations between doctors and patients. “(2) It violates the privacy of the patient and the oath taken by doctors, in respect to that privacy. “(3) It is a violation of the principles of democracy in that: a) It seeks to regiment members of one of the noblest professions, who in the past have given skilled and efficient service to the poor; (b) it requires payments from those under 21 who have no vote and no means of registering approval or disapproval. “(4) The meeting believes that the extension of existing Friendly Society and other such co-operative schemes could provide all the existing benefits at far less personal or administrative costs.

“(5) The meeting believes that the present scheme js financially unsound and that there can be no social security without financial security.”