IN LYTTELTON HARBOUR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 7544, 18 May 1903, Page 8

IN LYTTELTON HARBOUR.

LUiOPKHS .VACCINATED,

(Per Press Association.. LYTTELTON, Sunday. two cases of small-pox, one of winch proved fatal this morningwore discovered ou the steamer tn-acchus at Lyttelton on Saturday. The steamer caino from Calcutta, via Melbourne, Port Chalmers, and Timaru, The patients were Johnson, tho third officer, and Bell, the third engineer They were ill on arrival at -tort Chalmers on May 12th, and were medically examined there and at Timaru. „. wus noL thought necessary to (|iiarantino tlie vessel there, and it _ s stated that the opinion was that the disease was German measles. At Lyttelton, -whore the Gracclius arrived at 9..J0 a.m. on Saturday, tho I: , ort Hc . llth onice| . f Ur _ Upham, apparently considered tho cases small-pox. Dr. Finch, the District Health Officer, who returned from Wellington by the s.s. Zealandia examined all on board with iJr. Upham, and the vessel was ordered into quarantine. The crew of ]_asc;us wore vaccinated just before leaving Calcutta, but the patients hav_ not been recently vaccinated. The steamer went out to tlie quarantine ground at 8 p.m. on Saturday, and on Sunday morning was fumigated with formalin. Johnson died at 3 a.m. to-day, and was buried out at sea in the afternoon. The Rev. A. 11. Tredwell, Presbyterian Minister of Lyttelton, read the burial service on board the tug Lyttelton. Dr. Finch, the chairman of the : Harbour Board (Mr A. Kayo), and ! tlie Mayor of Lyttelton (Mr W. ItadclifYe) had a conference in tlie morning concerning the measures to bo taken. Under the direction of the Health Officer iso. 7 wharf, at which tlie Gracchus lays, was washed with sea water and disinfected. The cargo, mostly gunny bags and the like, which had been landed from the vessel, was isolated. The lumpers who had worked on board, some 24, and others who had handled tlie cargo, were assembled and given the option of being vaccinated or quarantined. It is intended to disinfect their houses and burn tlie clothes in which they worked on board. Out of twentyseven men affected only two consented to be vaccinated.