MINISTER IN REPLY

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 143, 19 June 1919, Page 3

MINISTER IN REPLY

COMMISSION'S FAIRNESS CHAL-

LENGED

The Minister for' Public Health (Hon. G. W. Russell) has issued a lengthy statement replying to certain portions of the Commission's report. He refers to the'delay in issuing the report, for which he blames the Commission, In dealing with, the findings regarding tho Niagara he says: "I regret to .be compelled to challenge the fairness of the Commission, particularly of its chairman. When 1 appeared before the Commission and came to deal with the Niagara, I desired to quote from the Auckland newspapers to show the existence, at the time the Niagara arrived, of a- virulent form of influenza. The chairman refused to allow me to place this information before the Commission, declaring this was 'not permissible as evidence.' " The Royal Commission was not bound by the strict laws of evidence, and when it suited the chairman, evidence not on oath1 and actually given by persons not present was "permissible in evidence."

The Minister proceeds to quote fz-om tho Auckland newspapers references to the prevalence of an influenza epidemic in Auckland prior. to the arrival of the Niagara on 13th October.

"Other extracts of a similar character could be quoted, but sufficient has been copied to show the conditions at Auckland when the Niagara arrived, and the rapid recovery of the patients from the ship. It is admitted, of course, that tho

disease became much more deadly a week or two after the arrival of the Niagara. But what are the facts? 'Only two patients from the Niagara, died,' report the Commission, 'a man admitted on 12th October. Having been previously gassed he was therefore more liable to contract the virulent form of infection than another person, as his lungs were not normal.' The Commission quotes Dr. Maguire as saying: 'The first influenza cases began to come into the hospital from the same date as the arrival of the Niagara.' Yet no sane person would suggest these had been infected from the ship.

"Dr. Hall,' in a letter to Dr. Milsom, which was not sworn to, but was of course 'permissible in evidence," according to the learned but illogical chairman, stated : 'The outset of the Niagara cases in hospital was the same in all cases, viz., headache, pains in back and limbs, feverishness, shivering, loss of appetite, vomiting.'

"The Commission compares this with the Herald's description of the disease on 9th, 10th, and 12th October, and states; 'It will thus be seen the pre-Niagara cases and those from the ship showed exactly tho same symptoms.' " The Minister contends that the disease on the. Niagara "worked up" en route from nothing. "Probably it 'worked up 'in Auckland in the same way. The two most accurate statements in the ro port are—-(1) ' The explosive . outbreak seems to have begun at a time which would practically synchronise (mark the word !) with the admission of the Niagara patients '; and (2) ' That tho extension of the epidemic from the first appearance in Auckland was largely the result of a general disregard of precautionary' measures in the initial stages, due to want' of knowledge regarding the nature of the disease.' That sums up the position— ' Want of knowledge of the disease.' The same ' want of knowledge of the disease' was shown the world over, as witness the terrific death-rate in other countries, as well as New Zealand. This country had had no experience of such a pandemic. The Public Health staff was weakened by two of its principal officers being with the Defence Department—one of them the Chief Health Officer; our doctors and nurses went down like hay before the reaper's scythe. Still we struggled through, and a great victory was accomplished, for the epidemic was practically beaten in three weeks.

"The Niagara arrived at Auckland on Sunday, 13th October, and the position was that on that date Auckland was practically in flames with the epidemic. I am not prepared as a, layman to suggest that the arrival of the Niagara did not accentuate, the position. On the other hand, seeing ths pandemic was worldwide, and that the influenza was slaying its hundreds of thousands in other countries'of the world at the same time that the onslaught in New Zealand took place, it appears to me that there is no necessary connection between the arrival of' the Niagara and the disaster which happened. THE OFFICIAL ADVICE. "The Commission blames me, as Minister, for accepting the reports of the Public Health officers as to the conditions on the Niagara. . . The Commission refers to what it describes as the 'ominous' telegram received from the captain of the ship on the Saturday. . . . Would any body of rational men suggest that a lay Minister in charge oT. a Department shonld refuse to accept the advice of his responsible experts and officers, and place more reliance upon a telegram from the captain of a ship than upon four doctors, two of whom, were on board throughout the voyage, and the other two of whom had made a perfectly independent diagnosis of the cases? The suggestion is too preposterous for words. Yet that is the suggestion of the Commission." The Minister adds that while ho would be prepared to accept no risk in future, that is a different matter to endeavouring to go back to what was the position when the Niagara actually arrived, when, in the words of tho Commission, we suffered from "a want of knowledge regarding the nature of the disease."

"The Commission finds that the action taken showed 'either non-recognition or a disregard of the gravity of the-posi-tion described by the wireless message on 11th October' (from the- 'captain). I absolutely challenge this statement, on the following grounds :—(1) Full information of the wireless was sent to the Health Officer at Auckland, who was instructed to make the necessary hospital arrangements. (2) The Health Officer and Port Health Officer were ordered not to grant pratique until information was, wired to tho Minister as to (a) The number of deaths, and (b) 'Whether the disease is or is not pure influenza, presenting the same- indications, as that which has prevailed in the Dominion for some time past.' (3) The GovernorGeneral was advised that if the replies wore unfavourable he would be asked to at once declare influenza a quarantinable disease, and agreed to do so. ...

Had there been replies that were in any way unsatisfactory or doubtful, or the slightest recommendation for quarantine, it would have been at once ordered. My opinion is that the.doctors gave an absolutely honest report on the information before them, and their examinations of tho cases, and I accepted it as such. OMINOUS SILENCE. "The public will notice that on some important matters the report is, ominously silent. The first is that when the Niagara arrived, the Health Department had no quarantine stations available. They were held by the Defence Department as camps for German internees. I say the silence is ominous—but why ? The Health Department, before I joined the Government, handad over its quarantine stations to Defence, and I leave it at that. Neither is reference made to the fact that the Auckland Hospital Board had no infectious diseases hospital, the result being that the Niagara patients had t to be taken to the infectious diseases ward of the ordinary hospital. As a result we could only have quarantined the Niagara patients and passen-' gers on the ship itself—and that must have ended disastrously. On these matters the Commission is ominously silent.

"Still more ominous is its silence as to the manner in which the Health Department led the country in dealing with the epidemic. No expense or labour was spared. The Government encouraged the local bodies to establish emergency hospitals everywhere. It agreed in every case to foot the entire bill, and has done so. Yet the Commission makes the reckless incorrect statement »>iat 'the local authorities took very substantial liabilities, both financial and otherwise, and all of them spared nothing in order to cope with the epidemic, when its virulence became manifest.'

"It is amazing to me that a body of men who took six weeks to prepare this report (whereas the monumental report of the Defence Commission, presided over by Sir Robert Anderson, was prepared in eight days) should have gone so far from the truth as not to know that the Government paid the entire cost of the emergency hospitals, doctors, nurses, food, etc., amounting in all to approximately £200,000, whilst the local authorities (who undoubtedly most' ably assisted) bore not a copper of the expense. "Neither is recognition made of the victory achieved. New Zealand was hit hard, but this country—thanks to the patriotism and self-sacrifice of aJI classes, under the guidance of the Health Department—cleaned up the disease in a little over three weeks. We aro now a clean country. Tile disease has been beaten. Thank God, up to date there has been no recrudescence. Yet ths diseajso ib atoll going strong in South Airica>

and our Australian cousins,, whose immunity we envied in October, November, and December, are still suffering badly, and are asking us to assist them with advice and material. I fear the Commission was less concerned to be just, than to try and prove the Health Department lacking. "As to the remainder of the report but little need be said. Suggestions for tho reorganisation of the Department— previously rendered impossible by war conditions arising out of want of money and want of men—-were stated by me as Minister, and by the Chief Health Officer to the Commission, and statements were mndo as to what is already being done on these matters, including the breaking up of tho present large health districts, appointment of more health officers, separation of the lay and the medical staffs, consolidation of the laws regarding public health, and many others. AH of these have been coolly appropriated by tho Commission. Where they have departed from the settled programme of the Department, as laid before them in evidence, they have floundered into a hopeless morass of impossibility. One spark of genius is shown. It is the suggestion that a caretaker should be appointed for each quarantine station who would be a combined, carpenter, plumber, painter!"