SMALL-POX.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3569, 26 June 1872, Page 3

SMALL-POX.

TO THE EDITOR OR THE LYTTEtTOJf TIMES. Sir, —I venture to address you on a subject which is of the utmost importance to us residents in New Zealand. The matter I refer to is the advent of that frightful scourge the small-pox in this colony. Through the papers, we have gleaned from a few meagre telegrams that the disease has been brought into the colony by the steamer Nebraska, and there are several cases under treatment. There can be no doubt about the virulence of the disease, as one poor fellow has died from its effects yesterday. Now, Sir, 1 take it that this is a subject of the greatest importance to us all. It affects one and all, and I am much surprised tliat no steps have been taken to detain the Nevada in Auckland in quarantine, as San Francisco is known to be an infected port. As it is, the steamer bearing this month’s mail is now proceeding down the coast; perhaps, unhappily, disseminating the seeds of this horrible disease in every port. Hitherto, wo have been happily free from this scourge, which has, as wo know, devastated whole countries in the Old and New World, and which is likely to become to us, if not checked, a national calamity. I assure you, Sir, that my writing to you on this matter is not to raise jmy impediment in the way of developing the trade and good relations which are now, springing up between this country and the' United States, or to create any prejudice against the steamers, ns I have no political feeling one way or the other in regard to the San Francisco mail service. But I do think that this great impending misfortune demands our instant and earnest attention, and that wo may be spared from the terrible effects of a disease, at the bare idea of which we must all shudder. D. CABO. Christchurch, June 25,