The subject of venereal disease has also been considered by more than
one important Medical Conference in Australia and New Zealand.

At a general meeting of the Australasian Medical Congress held in
Melbourne in October, 1908, it was resolved that the executive be
recommended to appoint a committee to investigate and report on the
facts in regard to syphilis. Such a committee was appointed, and
reported to the Congress in Sydney in 1911. In 1914 the Congress was
held in Auckland, and a special committee which had been appointed, with
the Hon. Dr. W.E. Collins, M.L.C., as chairman, presented a valuable
report giving some interesting information in regard to the prevalence
of venereal disease, in New Zealand. The committee recommended that
syphilis be declared a notifiable disease; that notification be
encouraged and discretionary, but not compulsory; and that the Chief
Medical Officer of Health be the only person to whom the notification be
made. They also recommended the provision of laboratories for the
diagnosis of syphilis, and that free treatment for syphilis be provided
in the public hospitals and dispensaries. These recommendations were
embodied in the report adopted by the Congress.

In February of the present year an important Conference, convened by the
Prime Minister of Australia, was held in Parliament House, Melbourne. It
was attended by official representatives of the Health Departments of
all the States, together with representatives from the British Medical
Association, the Women's Medical Staff at the Queen Victoria Hospital
Diseases Clinic in Melbourne, and other scientific and medical
authorities. The Commonwealth subsidizes the work of the States in
combating venereal disease, and the object of the Prime Minister in
calling the Conference was in order that it might inquire into the
effectiveness of the present system of legislation, of administrative