At the monthly meeting of Otago University Council held yesterday afternoon, the Registrar (the Rev Dr. Cameron), Professors Ferguson, Macdonald and Fitzgerald, Professors Hewitson and Benham, Messrs LD Ritchie, GR Ritchie, JC Thomson, JH Walker. part, JC Stephens, W. Eudey, WJ Morrell, P. McKinlay, and JW Scurr.
The Home Science Committee reported that it had received correspondence from Professor Rawson on a variety of matters, and the Committee decided to: To request the Chairs of the Home Science and Finance Committee to report on the possibility of renting an additional home; that the committee approves the establishment of a nutrition clinic and expresses its very warm appreciation for the project; recommending that the Council agree to Professor Rawson’s suggestion that Professor Strong should reside at Studholme House in 1922 is badly needed, apparently not only
in homes, but it could be of very great value to the whole community.
Cancer on the rise
The increase in cancer incidence, as we learned by telegram to the Times medical correspondent, is quite worrying around the world. To say that in every civilized country the death rate from this disease has practically doubled is alarmingly challenging. The situation becomes a little less worrying if one takes into account that the statistics show the effect on the increase in the disease recorded over a long period of time, the greater accuracy of cancer diagnosis today, the improvement in registration and the increased life expectancy, so that more people than today earlier to reach the later decades of life, when the incidence of the disease is likely to be high. However, the actual increase in cancers in recent years will have been measured with sufficient accuracy. In the case of New Zealand, statistical evidence shows that more deaths are from cancer than can be attributed to any cause other than organic heart disease. In 1919 there were 1,031 cancer deaths in the Dominion, the highest number ever recorded – “an unenviable honor,” notes the statistician, “almost every year in a row.” While 7.05% of the Dominion’s total mortality rate that year was from tuberculosis, no less than 9.54% was from cancer. and while the proportion is fortunately declining in the case of tuberculosis, it is increasing in the case of cancer.
Sad scene in court
In juvenile court yesterday, a baby cry rang out from a hidden form in a large woolen scarf that a Salvation Army sister was holding in her arms while the sad mother, unable to feed her children, was interrogated by the judge (Mr HY Widdowson). The baby and one other child, four years old, were admitted to Caversham Industrial School to be raised in the Presbyterian form of religion and the mother was instructed to pay 5 shillings per week for maintenance starting September 1. – ODT, August 17, 1921.
