A Good Example

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31796, 28 September 1968, Page 14

A Good Example

Three months ago the proprietor of the Crystal Hot Springs resort at Matamata closed his thermal pools because of the possible connection between the deaths of four young people and their swimming in the pools. The youngsters died from a rare form of meningitis; all hau been in the pools not long before they took ill; the presumption that each had been infected by an amoebic organism—the apparent origin of their illness—while they were in the pools could not be overlooked.

Scientific inquiries to identify the organism to which the disease was attributed and to compare it with the types of amoeba found in the pools have not so far produced any results to confirm or deny the circumstantial evidence. The proprietor of the resort voluntarily closed the pools and, although he might do so without any known risk, he has not reopened them. His long-term plans to build indoor pools were advanced instead. The new pools will contain non-mineral artesian water and will be warmed by heat transferred from geothermal water. Although their possible association with the sudden illnesses land deaths might have damaged, temporarily at legist, the long-standing popularity of the pools, the proprietor could have counted on being able eventually to restore them to use without the slightest risk to bathers. He has, however, acted in a surer way, and without delay or complaint, to restore his business and public confidence in it. His example is good. It might well be followed by the Department of Health itself as proprietor of the Hanmer pools, the renovation of which is long overdue.