DIRTY DARWIN

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 5

DIRTY DARWIN

GATEWAY OF ORIENTAL DISEASES THE ASIATIC MENACE. From time to time the possibility of Darwin, and the more defenceless parts of Northern Australia being used as a vantage point for an Asiatic invasion in force has been freoly canvassed by the "big navy" and the "big army" advocates, but (6ays Melbourne Age) according to Dr. Mervyn J. Holmes, ex-health and quarantine officer in the Northern Territory, the "yellow peril" that has been threatening the Commonwealth for some years past has been much more terrible and, once landed, much more difficult to combat than any that may have been contemplated in the Commonwealth defence estimates. Whilst Australians have been sleeping securely in their beds in the belief that the quarantine health regulations guarded them from the dangers of the worst Asiatic diseases, "dirty Darwin"— "dirtier than the world famous black quarter of Capetown"—has been teeming with the stegomyia fasciata mosquito, the bearer of the dreaded yellow and dengue fevers. Simultaneously Chinatown, in' the heart of Darwin, has reeked with rats and vermin. With Manila, but seven days' and Singapore but nine days' sail from Darwin, it was possible,. Dr. Holmes informed the Northern Territory. Commissioner (Mr. Justice Ewing), when giving ovidenco on 11th March, that an immigrant, carrying the undeveloped symptoms of plague or small-pox, might enter dirty Darwin and give the stegomyia fasciata its opportunity. And once in Darwin, Dr. Jones remarked significantly, plague or smallpox would not be long in reaching Sydney and Melbourne' and traversing the continent. The sanitary conditions at Darwin in 1916, Dr. Holmes, said, were apparently worse than they were in 1906, when the then health officer'B recommendations for improvement were not given effect, to. Witness himself met with considerable opposition in carrying out reform*. ' Describing his experiences, witness said that he found the conglomeration of stores, shops, and "humpies" known as Chinatown, "worse than the black quarter of Capetown.". Ho had novel- seen anything approaching such filth and insanitary conditions. The humpies were mere hovels of galvanised; iron on frame j works.of pine, built in a couple of days —without any pretence to alignment— the roofs in many cases being held in placa by the weight of stones. They teemed with rats and vermin. Water and slops usually lay about the earthenware floors. Where ducks were kept they were generally to be found in the kitchen. Urine in advanced/ stages of decomposition was allowed to lie in stagnant pools about the houses. In some cases a piece of galvanised iron or piping was used to conduct the urine into the earth adjacent to the drinking water wells. The Chineso sanitary contractor was in the habit of carting the excreta. from the houses in a couple of leakingbarrels, returning later willi a load of vegetables in the same cart. The excreta was carried to Chinese gardens, and frequently patches of it were returned adhering to the vegetables delivered to the Darwin households. The "housing" conditions were so deplorable that 30 per cent, of the Chinese, death rate was dua to tuberculosis. . A hovel in which a. Chinese consumptive died, after expectorating about the.floor 'and , walls for weeks, was occupied by another family the day after the corpse was removed. In another filthy, unlighted room witness found two. children dying from diphtheria; the one died before removal, and the other after arrival at the hospital. The limited space between the hovels was usually choked with rubbish. The whole conditions wera such a» to- bring, the diseases of the East within reach .of Darwin. The town became overrun with. the> "yellow fever", mosquito, and disaster was a weekly possibility, In reply to Mr. Morley, witness said that the local health authority, the district council (an elective body), did nothing whatever to remedy the grave state of affairs. They ignored his" reports. Apparently they wanted the Government to do the work at the expense of the peoplfc of the Commonwealth. Eventually, in default of the local authority taking action, the central health authority (the Administrator) authorised tho necessary action, and witness demolished the worst hovels, introduced the duplicate pan system, and 1 forced the people to cover up their drinking wells. Forty of the more decrepit Chinamen were repatriated to China, and the other inhabitants of the demolished hovels were located on quarter-acre plots outside Darwin, where any sanitary shortcomings would not be a, menace to the health of Darwin. As the result of these activities the dangerous steraogyia fasciata mosquito seemed to disappear entirely from Darwin. In reply to .Mr. Barrett, Dr. Holmes said that he did not consider unnecessary 1 hardship was inflicted on the Ohines© in demolishing the hovels over their heads. Witness received a deputation of 100 decrepit old Chinamen—who lived on a few pence a day—on the subject, but as they had from eight to twelve months' notice to transfer to the larger area outside Darwin he had tri go on. As long as their hovels stood the Chinese would not budge. When he left Darwin in 1916 to go to the front, witness said, there was still room for much improvement in Darwin's sanitary condition. A drainage system was a necessity, and more accommodation to replace the "camping areas" that had been authorised in the absence of proper accommodation was n. great need. To illustrate the sanitary standard of ! Darwin, Dr. Holmes mentioned that the privy at the Administrator's « residence adjoined those of the Asiatic servants— j undor the kitclien roof.