"ROOM FOR THE LEPER!"

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12509, 23 May 1906, Page 8

" ROOM FOR THE LEPER!"

—« — ISOLATION THAT DOES NOT ISOLATE.

It is only a few weeks ago (cays Monday's "New Zealand Times") since the colony was shocked by the discovery of a ca.se of leprosy in a white man working in Christchurch. Why the case was not discovered long before cannot bo expkiincd. The disease was in an advanced stage, and the man's face, arms and body were a mass of leprous pores. He was at once isolated, and is now passing his days on Quail Island, in Lytj teiton Harbour, where he will no doubt end his days. What tho colony does not know, the "Times" goes on to cay, is that wo ore in possession of two other oases of leprosy, both natives, and both in a more advanced stage of the disease than is the lone inhabitant of Quail Island. One native resides up the Wanganui river, and the other near Ngaruawahia, a few miles to the north of Hamilton, in the Waikato. A report from the north states that tho afflicted Maori of Ngaruawahia has been caught on at least two occasion* riding among the cans on niiilc trains, and the children of the other, who attend a public school, aro said to often visit their father. Tlie Chief Health Officer (Dr. Mason) was oonsnlted about the propriety cf allowing the native lepers to stray about at will. He stated that- in theory tiny were isolated, but- practically they wero not, he very much regretted. Ho had advocated placing th am all on Quail Island, but there had been such an outcry that his propcr>al had not been given effect to, and the lepens remained with us. The department and the Government had submitted to all sorts of nhusive criticism over placing the Christohurch patient on Quail Island, but he was sure it would make that lonely soul's life more endurable if he had the companions-hip of other men, aud it would meet assuredly remove the risk of infection (it only comes from personal contact) that now ex:6ts.