ON QUAIL ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 24 June 1911, Page 11

ON QUAIL ISLAND.

TREATMENT OF THE LEPERS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The suggestion that an inquiry should be held into the complains of the lepers stationed on Quail Island has not yet elicited any reply from the Minister to whom it was addressed, but it is apparent that an inquiry -will have to take place as to the degree of liberty that the lepers should enjoy in their movements on the island. A number of stock owners Jiave approached Mr. C. Laurenson, member for Lyttelton, in regard to the dangers that may be run by stock quarantined on the island, and lie will endeavour to interview the Hon. T. Mackenzie. Minister of Agriculture, on the subject at the earliest opportunity, and discuss the matter in all its bearings. Mr. Laurenson informed a "Times" reporter yesterday that no further developments had taken place in the matter. The leper patientsj he said, were stationed in huts in a, pine wood, on one corner of the island, and the. chief abjection urged against their presence there iras the fact that they lincl liberty to roam over the island where the stock was quarantined. Mr. Lauren-son remarked that Tie wished particularly to say that the impression abroad concerning the treatment of the patients vras a wrong one. They had their own stores of tea, sugar, butter, jam, and 'bread, and were at liberty to get small meals for themselves whenever they liked, in addition to the set meals. The patients' themselves were said to have complained that they could not get such delicacies as sardines, but the medical officer who, by the way, was one of the most capable and conscientious in New Zealand, and above all things kind to the patients, had prohibited the supply of cannpd food of any description, and also prohibited the use of pickles and sauces. He could say from personal knowledge that kinder-hearted people than the caretaker and bis wife could not be found, and Mrs. Thomas, besides bpinor a capk'ble cook, was a most hospitable woman. The'life of the patients was necessarily lonely and monotonous, and they must feel the environment as a severe punishment, but everything possible was bpiiwr done to mitigate the hardness of their lot.