OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 310, 11 June 1889, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

-- jb' (from oub own cobhesponbhnt.) ] “ VACCINATION ’’ TAILING INTO DISUETUDE. Sydney, May 28. From i medical report presented to Parliament it appears that the foolish and revolting practice of cowpoxing children, commonly called vaccination, is falling into the desuetude which it deserves, and from which it would never have emerged bad not the interests of the medical profession been engaged in agitation for compulsion. As I have before pointed ont those interested are engaged in advocating the practice both directly and indirectly, and aeldom indeed is it, that any one, other than a “ duly qualified " medical man, is iound lifting up his voice in its favor. Certainly fathers and mothers, whose children have bean killed, or have had their constitutions ruined by the poisonous scratches, don’t come forward in any large numbers in its defence. THE DANGERS ATTACHED TO IT. But this by the way. In a case like this, it is evident that the men who profit by indicting the scratch, and who further profit by the host of virulent diseases which it inseminates or calls into activity, are not the safest guides on the subject. An increasing number of medical men, to their great honor be it said, are beginning to recognise the true nature of the superstitious, but lucrative practice, in which during the whole of their professional training they have been so industriously indoctrinated. A good representative of this class is Dr. Creighton, the author of the article on 11 vaccination ” in the new Encyclopedia Britannica. But they have not yet got the ear of those who enact medical law, and consequently in countries where vaccina tion is compulsory, there is every year a great slaughter of the innocents at the mandate of the professional Herods. In this Colony, however, it is not so. Dr. Manning reports to the Government that the rising generation is virtually unvaooinated, and that cut oi 353 medical men to whom circulars were sent, requesting them to furnish reports on the jAbjeet, 206 had not even troubled to answer officials letter. He might also have added tSt in this unvaooinated condition the Colony has had several outbreaks of smallpox, and has come out of them with quite as little damage as neighboring Colonies in which the medical profession are allowed to reap the rich harvest of compulsion. He might further have added that in these outbreaks it transpired that nearly every patient who was attacked by smallpox had been vaccinated, proving that the risx which he had undertaken had been futile, Dr. Manning affects IO think that by and by smallpox of a different character to any that has yet- been known will make its appearance, and that for this yet unknown disease it will be found that previous cowpoxing, with its attendant dangers of syphilis, erysipelas, and otber forme of blood poisoning, is the only prophylactic. For my own ‘part I don’t believe that any disease will appear except by persistent violation of the laws of health, and that the consequences of that violation cannot in the nature of things be evaded by a drop of magic filth on the point of a lancet. We live in an age which is beginning to recognise the reign of lew. When a learned profession assumes to ignore the Jaws of health, and to advocate the compulsory dissemination of disease it is on the high road to public obloquy. I need hardly say that although it is not yet fashionable to discuss thia subject in the public Press, it is one which deeply concerns the health of the rising generation, and one which no conscientious father or mother can afford to ignore,

HEAVY BAINS! VIOLENT STORMS. The heavy rains and violent storms of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday completely spoilt the holiday on Queen’s birthday. Some seven inches fell in Sydney, and all along the coast the fall was very heavy. . Considerable damage has been done by floods, and many confiding purchasers of allotments at fancy prices have found their possessions several feet under water. In lowlying parts of the suburbs where houses have been built ou these " splendidly situated ” sites, the disconsolate possessors have in many cases been compelled to make their escape in boats. The rain was badly 7 wanted, but we didn’t want quite so much of it It is curious to note that the weather is almost an exact reflex of the moral state of mankind in the mass. They are always lathe extremes—either stupidly apathetic Or madly speculative; either hopelessly indifferent or furiously fanatical. So with the weather. It is nearly always a drought or a flood. Seldom, indeed, is the golden mean reached. Men persist in courses which they know to be foolish and wrong, until the habit becomes so firmly rooted that something like a moral convulsion—almost exactly corresponding to the storm which follows a drought—is necessary before they can tear themselves away, PARALYSIS OF BUSINESS.

One thing more the storm has done for us. It has shown us the unreliable character of much of the work upon which, as a commercial community, we prided ourselves. Like “ company manners ” which are so apt to vanish in the stress of actual conflict with the difficulties of life, all our fine weather arrangements have been tried and found wanting. Telegraphs have been blown down, mails interrupted or altogether stopped, railway lines washed away, harbor steamers damaged and compelled to cease running, and a general paralysis of business has resulted. However, the weather has now cleared, and the weak spots disclosed by the fury of the elements will no doubt be Repaired in a more solid and substantial manner. Business will once more resume its wonted channels, but with a sense of the unforeseen dangers to which it is subject, and which will no doubt make themqelyeg T (elt in the future in coma other form, A LITTLE LBS6OX-. One little lesson, I think, has already been learnt by a good many people who needed it. The unwonted difficulty in obtaining supplies has caused a pretty general refleof tion that society is not half as grateful as it ought to be to those who supply its needs, from the publisher of ths local paper downwards. It owes them a great debt, and an honest recognition of the fact would do much to establish good feeling and, consequently, to promote the general spread of prosperity. How great the debt is, it doesn't know, because the services are so regularly and faithfully rendered that they have come to be looked upon as a matter of course—very much as some people regard the rising of the sun in the morning. Yet this very regularity and faithfulness involve benefits which are not and cannot be reckoned in the bill. And it is only when some untoward circumstance prevents their exercise that their value is recognised. A HAPPY REMINDER. Another reason why so little account is taken of the multitude of countless services by which society exists, is that it has suited certain illustrious writers to represent the whole as the mere outcome of sordid self-interest and therefore as deserving of no acknowledgement. But this basest theory of utilitarianism doesn't cover the whole of the facts in the case. Indeed, it leaves out of sight those which are the most vital and potent. Imagine, It possible, that from tbs body politic are eliminated all actions and activities which spring from a love oi usefulness or a love of duty, and that only those are left to which men are bribed or driven, Should we not be deprived of tbe best work and the best workers, and would not the residue contain all the most worthless and unreliable elements? All these things and a good many more ocme to mind when we require tbe services for which we instinctively feel that we can render no adequate payment. Therefore, I conclude that it is good that once or twice in a way we should be reminded of them. MORE GOOD THAN HARM. Turning to tbe other aide of the question, it is certain that the rains will do much more good than harm. They have fallen over a large extent of country, on which they will , produce abundance of grass for the 'winter. This in its turn will be converted into our staple pastoral products and add to the wealth of the country, BLIND FOLLOWERS : A WRECK AND A MIBACCLOnS ESCAPE. It has often been said that men follow one another like sheep—blind. It now seems hat coasting steamers do ths same. One

dark and stormy night last week, so dark that the skipper could not see a ship’s length ahead, the Duckenfield, a steam collier, started from Sydney to Newcastle. She steered the course she had been accustomed to steer. But on this occasion it didn’t carry her far enough from the land and she struck on Long Reef, not far from Manly, one man being drowned. I must not comment on this case as it is mb judice. But the remarkable feature was that another steamer was following the Duckenfield. The captain of this craft does not seem to have set himself any course at all, but was steering by the stern light of the vessel ahead. When the latter struck the other still came on, and, being of lighter draught, passed safely between the stranded ship and the shore 1 An almost miraculous escape. But how graphically it exhibits the fatal habit of blindly following those who Are as blind as ourselves,