BRIEF QUARANTINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 141, 15 June 1923, Page 4

BRIEF QUARANTINE.

ULIMAROA RELEASED. LONE PATIENT AT MOTUIHL SICK MAN STEERS BOAT ASHORE. After having been in quarantine off Motuihi since yesterday morning, their vessel having been refused pratique on Wednesday owing to a suspicious case of sickness, passengers from Sydney were allowed to land when the Ulimaroa was berthed at the Central Wharf at 9 a.m. to-day. The cause of quarantine was the discovery by the port medical officer that a fireman named Long had a temperature rising up to 102.4, with symptoms of influenza. As the malady had been reported to be epidemic in Melbourne in pneumonic form, and also to some extent, in a milder degree, in Sydney, it was deemed advisable to isolate the Ulimaroa until the authorities in Wellington had been consulted. As no other passengers or members of the crew developed temperatures, it was decided yesterday afternoon, however, to release the ship and land the passengers, with the provision that the crew remained an board under medical surveillance. It was too late for the Ulimaroa to navigate the channel from the quarantine anchorage when word of the release was received, however, and so the vessel remained at anchor through the night and picked up her cable at daylight this morning. As was natural, passengers were to some extent irritated by the delay in being landed at their destination, but everything was done to ensure their comfort, and they were devoutly thankful that matters were no worse when word came yesterday afternoon of their impending release. Games were played all day on deck, and last night an enjoyable concert whiled away the time. Though such a source of alarm to the health officials, the patient fireman, G. Lamb, did not consider himself to be very ill. He was ordered to be landed it Motuihi, and provision was made for his accommodation in a building apart from where some_of the Makura's passengers still remain quarantined. The officials to escort him to his temporary marooning went in a launch, and Lamb, with a comrade, followed in an open boat, not bothering about an overcoat, although the weather was cold enough for the most robust of mortals to brave across a mile or so of seaway. The patient sat at the tiller, smiling and waving gay adieus to the shipmates and passengers who had crowded to the rails to see him off. Lamb will stay at Motuihi until he recovers, but he will not be altogether lonely, as a steward was landed with him to attend to his wants, and this fact, no doubt, accounted for some of his cheerfulness when leaving the ship. °