Evidence has been given of other cases, some of them of a very shocking character, in which persons suffering from venereal disease are not seeking medical treatment and are communicating the disease to others.  As the law stands at present there is no power to restrain them from such conduct or to compel them to receive medical treatment.

SECTION 2.—­RECOMMENDATIONS.

The Committee stress in the strongest terms the duty of moral self-control.

They urge the cultivation of a healthier state of public opinion.  The stigma at present attached to sufferers from venereal disease should be transferred to those who indulge in promiscuous sexual intercourse.

Parents have a great responsibility as regards the instruction and training of their children so as to safeguard them against the dangers resulting from ignorance of sexual laws.  There is too little parental control generally in New Zealand.  The Committee recommend the training of teachers, and provision for giving appropriate instruction in schools.

Classification and, where necessary, segregation of mentally defective adolescents is recommended.

The following medical measures for preventing and combating the disease are recommended:—­

The clinics should be made more available by being open continuously.  Every effort should be made to secure privacy.  A specially trained nurse should be in attendance at women’s clinics, and women doctors should be secured where possible.

The Committee recommend that provision be made at the clinics for prompt preventive treatment of those who have exposed themselves to infection.

Lady patrols should be appointed in other centres to perform the kind of work that is being carried on in Christchurch.

The Committee, having regard to the good work especially of an educational nature which is being done by the Social Hygiene Society, Christchurch, consider voluntary effort of the same kind in other centres would be very helpful.

The Committee are entirely opposed to the Continental system of licensed brothels, or a revival of the C.D.  Acts in any shape or form.

They recommend legislation be introduced providing for what is known as conditional notification of venereal disease.  It will be the duty of a doctor to notify to the Health Department, by number or symbol only, each case of venereal disease he treats.  If a patient, however, refuses to continue treatment until cured, and will not consult some other doctor or attend a clinic, it will then be the duty of the doctor last in attendance to notify the case to the Department by name.

If the patient continues recalcitrant and refuses to allow himself to be examined by the medical practitioner appointed by the Director-General of Health, then the latter should be empowered to apply to a Magistrate for the arrest of such person and his detention in a public hospital or other place of treatment until he is non-infective.