Butchers reject takeover
A rumour has been current that the slaughtering business of the city was likely to be undertaken by the New Zealand Refrigerating Co at Burnside. The idea was that this company would undertake the buying and slaughtering of stock and sell the dressed carcases to the butchers at a price to be agreed upon. The argument in favour of the proposition was that the abattoirs at Burnside could be dispensed with, and a big saving in expense effected. The idea, however, has been rejected, the butchers being of the opinion that the scheme would not be practicable.
Don’t make it worse
When a saucepan is burnt do not attempt to clean it the same day by boiling soda water in it. Remove as much of the burnt food as you can without actually scraping the pan, then fill with cold water and a good handful of salt. The following day boil up the mixture and the burnt particles will have become so softened they will easily come away with one of those little wire saucepan cleaners.
Obstetrician defends practice
To the editor: Sir, Several letters have appeared in your paper on the subject of maternal mortality, criticising the methods used at St Helens Hospitals and making statements about them which are not according to fact. Dr Agnes Bennett and myself are the only two women in charge of St Helens Hospitals; both of us are middle-aged (though, perhaps, sorry to confess it), and both of us flatter ourselves that we certainly do possess a little knowledge beyond that received from charts and diagrams. We have both been in charge of our respective hospitals for close on 18 years, and have entire charge of the ante-natal clinics, supervising the health of every woman who cares to apply to us from the day she knows she is pregnant till full term. Owing to this system of close observation we are continually enabled to rectify and treat both minor complaints and more serious complications. The question of giving anaesthetics more frequently has been discussed by the department, but it is a question of pounds, shillings and pence; the country’s finances are at a low ebb; it requires either special fees for every case in which an anaesthetic is administered only for the relief of pain and not because of a complication, or else the extra salary for a resident medical officer. I think the Government is to be congratulated on having instituted such fine hospitals. Certainly a full-time medical officer, with a salary of £1000 a year, would get over some of the difficulties met with in this system, instead of a part-time officer at less than one-sixth of that. Until the country is rich enough to afford that, no improvement on the present system can be instituted. — I am, etc, Emily H. Siedeberg — ODT, 20.6.1924
Compiled by Peter Dowden
