NO FRESH CASES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 46, 22 August 1913, Page 8

NO FRESH CASES

FIREMEN REFUSE TO BE VACCINATED ELUSIVE WHARF LABOURERS. The steamer Delphic still lies in lonely exile off Somes Island. To-day she was visited by Dr. Pollen, Port Health Officer, whose mission was to endeavour to persuade two unvaccinated firemen aboard to submit to inoculation with cow-lymph. It transpires that one of the men went through the painless ordeal at Auckland, but that the vaccine refused to "take." The other man, however, has not previously been vaccinated, and up to the present has resolutely refused to undergo the process. In tho meantime the large vessel rests idly en 'the waters of the harbour, the dislocation of her itinerary meaning a serious loss to her owners. She is under charter to load at Sydney for Valparaiso, and should she be kept back for a fortnight there is a possibility that the charter will be cancelled. If all tho members of the crew allow themselves to be vaccinated, however, it is not likely that the vessel will remain in enforced idleness for more than a week. i Were the vessel to sail at once for the Australian port she would doubtless be refused pratique (coming, as she would, from a port where there is a case of smallpox) unless all the members of the ship's complement were vaccinated. The quest for the stevedores who handled the cargo of the steamer still proceeds, but so far the men have been most elusive. Notwithstanding a, conspicuous notice displayed by the Health Department on the wharf, folly forty of the watersiders who assisted with the cargo are still lying low and keeping away from the medical officer who visits the wharf waiting shed for the purpose of vaccinating persons engaged along the waterfront. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) was asked by a Post representative to-day if there were any further developments. He replied that it Was now twelve days since a case had been reported in Auckland, and this would aeem to indicate that the epidemic was practically under control. It was generally recognised that the period of incubation for the disease 'was fourteen days, and with another couple of clear days there should be no further cause for anxiety. The civic authorities were not relaxing their vigilance as far as Wellington was concerned. Search was still being made for "contacts," and everything possible was being done to safeguard the health of the people. At its meeting yesterday the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board passed the following resolution: "That the attention of parents and guardians should be d«twn to the necessity of having their children vaccinated as early as possible in order to avail themselves of the only efficient means of combating the disease of smallpox.