THE MAKURA
ACTION OF DEPARTMENT CRITICISED. A STRONG PROTEST. [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, December 4. The following letter, signed by the members of the Press delegation quarantined on the Makura, has been received by the Auckland ' Herald ' : From a strong sense of public duty we deem it right to direct public attention to tho circumstances following the quarantining of the Makura's passengers and crew at Auckland. The vessel arrived on Saturday evening, and anchored in tho fairway off Rangitoto Island, moving up to the quarantine station opposite Mctuihi on Sunday morning, when three medical oflicers of the Health Department boarded her. They made no examination or inspection of the passengers, but were supplied with temperatures and pulse readings previously taken. After a short stay the department's officers left the steamer, and up to the timo of writing—6o hours after arrival—no official intimation has been given of the decision arrived at by the department. Some half-dozen patients who had been seen by the hoalth officers were removed to Motuihi. The steamer has since been detained in quarantine without a visit from tho medical authorities, and no precautions have been taken by the department to safeguard passengers or crew except the removal of the patients before mentioned, and no advice has been given that would tend to lessen the risk of contracting disease by the large number of people on board ; nor has any fumigation of the ordinary cabins or saloons taken place. These are naked facts which admit of no contradiction, and betray an extraordinary lack of appreciation, of what is due to over 500 people who aro compulsorily detained on the steamer. An elementary step to check the spread of influenza is to prohibit the public congregating together m numbers. In America, Canada, and New Zealand, when fighting the epidemic, .theatres, churches, hotels, and other places of public resort were closed, or restrictions enforced ; yet on the Makura 520 people have been forced to livo in crowded quarters by the action of the Public Health authorities without any means of protecting themselves from contracting disease, and without one single word of advice being given to them by tho department's medical officers, whoso perfunctory treatment of the position is the subject of severe comment by those who are condemned to indefinite imprisonment under conditions which render them specially liable to the contraction of disease. Tho New Zealand Health Department, having exercised its power to quarantine the passengers and crow of the Makura, should surely recognise its responsibility to ensure that the health and well-being of those who are affected by its action will he futlv and completely safeguarded. According to newspaper reports, an inhalation chamber was to be established on the vessel; but this has not yet been done, and no member of the Health Department's staff ■is or has been on board since Sunday to see that the necessary requirements are carried out. We now urge on the department that it should at once reverse the decision it is reported to have arrived at to keep the passengers on board tho Makura, and take steps to have them removed to healthy surroundings ashore. We cannot help adding reluctantly, but very deliberately, that, in our judgment, the attitude of the department is less likely to safeguard than to menace the health of those aboard the Makura.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 16909, 5 December 1918, Page 2
Word Count
556THE MAKURA Evening Star, Issue 16909, 5 December 1918, Page 2
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