Tuberculosis Menace

In Fiji

Plan To Use War Memorial In Fight Against Disease

A MEANS of paying tribute to Fiji’s gallant dead, and of honouring the part played by the Colony in the Pacific War, is to be decided upon this month. A responsible committee has re commended to the Legislative Council that the War Memorial should take the form of a Colony-wide campaign against tuberculosis: and it seems certain that this plan will be accepted.

The Committee, which considered many suggestions as to the form the memorial should take, says:— “The Committee was deeply concerned when its inquiries revealed the degree to which tuberculosis has developed in the Colony.

“The Committee was impressed by the considered view of a medical officer that a determined, large scale attack on the disease for ten years would do much to bring it under control, but that if ade quate measures were not taken it must continue to spread.

“The Committee was concerned to dis cover that there is insufficient hospital accommodation for all cases seeking treatment, and that many sufferers from the disease must therefore return to their villages, frequently to become steadily worse and certainly to run the risk of spreading the disease still further.”

The Committee learned with equal con cern that no adequate provision exists for the isolation of advanced cases or for comforts for patients who are ex-service men, or for the after-care of discharged patients.

The Committee recommended:— (a) That a Fiji War Memorial Anti- Tuberculosis Fund be established for the prevention, treatment and control of tuberculosis in Fiji. (b) That a Statutory Board, similar to the Lepers Trust Board, be set up to ad minister the Fund, in collaboration with the Medical Department. (c) That a public appeal be launched to establish the initial Fund, and that an nual appeals to supplement it be made for the following ten years. (d) That the money raised in the initial appeal should be subsidised pound for pound by the Government up to £20,000. (This was the amount which, in the Com mittee’s terms of reference, was specified as the maximum Government contribution to the war memorial.) (e) That of the total amount available from public contributions and Govern ment subsidy, £33.000 should be used to meet the capital cost of the proposed new wards and staff quarters, and the re mainder should form the nucleus of the Fund to be administered by the proposed Board. (f) That the Board should spend money from the Fund on general welfare work in connection with tuberculosis.

Sir Hugh Ragg was chairman of the Committee, the members of which were Mr H TVT. Scott, Ratu Edward Cakobau and the Rev. S. G. C. Cowled. The Pub lic Relations Officer (Mr, L. G. Usher), was Secretary.

Mr. and Mrs. Warner Shand and their young son, Roger, arrived in Brisbane recently from New Guinea on several months vacation. They will spend some time at Surfers’ Paradise.