Social Hygiene Bill Troops and impurity Strange ways of pakeha Flanders mud Lake Wakatipu high
IT is satisfactory to observe that the Government has expressed its determination to place the Social Hygiene Bill on the Statute Book this session. It is with a great national problem that the measures proposed in the Bill are designed to cope, a problem so grave that it cannot be effectually grappled with by gentle expedients which involve no resort to compulsion. When it is understood that, as the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases concluded upon the evidence placed before it, the number of persons who have been affected with the more terrible form of secret disease, acquired or congenital, cannot fall below 10 percent of the whole population in the large cities of the Empire, and that the
percentage affected with the minor form of the disease must greatly exceed this proportion, it should be apparent that action of a somewhat drastic kind is imperative in the interests of public health and for the sake of the welfare of the race . . .
The Rev. W. Ready had a large audience in the Methodist Central Hall yesterday, when he described his experiences as a chaplain on one of the New Zealand hospital ships. The cheerful side predominated in the chaplain’s address and he kept his audience intensely interested for an hour and ahalf, while he told of what he had seen of England’s soldiers and of his experiences at many ports of call. Dealing with London, his native city, Mr Ready made a serious denunciation of its conditions. Impurity was the greatest danger our boys had to face, and some had told him that London was far worse than Cairo.
The ways of the pakeha are evidently still strange to some of the old Maori residents of the district, judging by the following story, the accuracy of which has been vouched for (says the Poverty Bay Herald). Coming in to Gisborne recently an old patriarch drew a somewhat substantial cheque as the result of his interest in a certain Native land transaction. Depositing £1000 in the bank he set off on a new career, seeking to enjoy to the full the benefits
of civilisation. His first cheque on his account was one of £560 for a motor car. Cheques on his account followed for sums of £50, £30, and various ‘‘fivers’’. Eventually, having ‘‘overrun the constable’’, one of his cheques was returned with the endorsement ‘‘N.S.F.’’ [not sufficient funds]. Proceeding to obtain the advice of a gentleman connected with Native matters, he bitterly complained that he was being ‘‘had’’. The old man indignantly scorned the explanation that his funds were exhausted, insisting that he was being beaten. The cheque book was produced, and a tally taken to demonstrate the state of his account but, figures or no figures, the Maori was obdurate. Pointing to the unused cheque forms the old man declared he had 12 or 14 more cheques left, and while they remained he failed to see why they could not be used. It was after a lengthy and somewhat heated argument the veteran was convinced on the point.
Rain has reduced the Flanders battlefield ground to a perfect loblolly, but the Britishers and Anzacs navigated the mud seas and mud mountains like miracle men.
The United Press correspondent talked with Sir Douglas Haig yesterday. The latter is full of admiration for the men. He said the entire history of Flanders shows that mud was always the soldier’s worst enemy, and this is true to a greater extent now than ever before, because the natural drainage was stopped. Nevertheless, Britishers from all parts of the Empire, and also the French, are undaunted before both the mud and the Germans. Sir Douglas concluded: ‘‘They are all simply splendid.’’
Lake Wakatipu is very high as the result of the recent heavy rain, and if much more rain falls the lower part of the town will be flooded, says the Wakatipu Mail. Owing to the fact of the Shotover River banking up the Kawarau at its confluence with the latter, the Kawarau is almost on a level with the lake, and therefore the latter is not emptying itself at the rate it should. The gradual damming up of the Kawarau River is going to be a serious menace to the safety of the town in the future if something is not done to combat the danger. — ODT, 15.10.1917.