Precautions in Auckland.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 212, 6 September 1892, Page 5

Precautions in Auckland.

STRINGENT MEASURES TO BE

ADOPTED.

As there is a feeling of unresb and some alarm among the people of this colony on account of the rapid and deadly manner in which the cholera epidemic is extending over the civilised countries of the world, the authorities here are fully alive to the necessity of taking stringent precautions to prevent the slightest chances of any of the germs of the dread disease landing on our shores. As the Continental mails and passengers on the incoming mail steamer Mariposa, due here from San Fraaciaco on Saturday, left England and the Continent prior to the outbreak of the plague, it is not probable that any extreme measures will be taken, such as putting the vessel and passengers into quarantine, and having the letters fumigated. Dr. Lewis, the Health Officer for this port, however, is to board the steamer before she berths, and is to make a thorough inspection of her crew and passengers. Dr. Lewis was notified from Wellington yesterday that the strictest precautions are to be observed in regard to the examination of all vessels entering port. Every vessel arriving here after this date from any foreign port other than those of Australasia is to be examined, and the captain will have to supply a report of the voyage since leaving his last port, as required by the first schedule of the Public Health Act. If Dr. Lewis ascertains that any signs of cholera have been prevalent during the passage, and if there is anything whatever of an unsatisfactory state on board, the vessel and all on board are to be placed in quarantine, and are to remain there till the doctor in satisfied with the state of their health. The Union Steamship Company's fine mail steamer Monowai, which will be due here on the 6th of next month with the English mails which left London on the 3rd of the present month, will be subjected to a rigid examination.. It is very probable that she will be placed in quarantine, and it is quite certain that her letters, papers, and mails will be thoroughly fumigated before being handed over to the postal authorities for distribution. Such being the case our local quarantine station at Motuihi is now liable to be called into requisition at any time, and ib is very satisfactory to know that everything is in perfect order and readiness there. The Collector of Customs here, Mr A. Rose, paid an unexpected v\9ib to the island yesterday, and he found the buildings in fine order. Everything is clean and neat, and quite ready for occupation at any moment, which reflects great credit on the keeper for the close attention which he shows for the comfort of any probable inmates there.

In Europe the epidemic is spreading in a manner that is simply appalling. It has now appeared in the provinces of Hanover and Silesia, in Germany, and there seems to be every likelihood of it penetrating into every corner of Europe. Even America has not been spared, and through the agency of immigrant vessels the cholera has made its appearance in New York. The American authorities are making strenuous endeavours to check it from extending over the country. Since the outbreak in Europe the number of deaths that have occurred through the plague has reached the awful total, of 100.000. In Hamburg alone 3,100 deaths ;have taken place, and close on 6,000 are at present under treatment, while the daily death rate is nearly 300. In Russia the daily death rate ie estimated at 3,000.