Suspected Plague.

Feilding Star, 17 May 1907, Page 2

Suspected Plague.

The awfully sudden deaths of the two y6ung girls from blood-poisoning or suspected plague has roused the authorities to the danger threatened by the existence of filthiness in large cities, for there is no doubt now that plague is communicated to human beings by rats who thrive on the garbage criminally careless foil, allow to accumulate near their premises. It has been indisputably proved that the fleas from rats are a source of infection to human beings, so that the very existence of rats is a menace to civilization, and those who are guilty of uncleanliness in their surroundings have a great deal to answer for. The state of affairs revealed in Auckland is anything but creditable to that great city, for the plague scares already experienced there should have kept the local bodies alive to the necessity for never-ceasing vigilance in sanitary matters. It is to be hoped, now that fatal results have followed the absence of proper precautions, that the sad lesson taught will be taken to heart, so that other parts of the colony will not be victimised through the default of the authorities of Auckland city.