D R VALINTINE REPLIES TO MR. REED.

Northern Advocate, 28 August 1913, Page 4

D R VALINTINE REPLIES TO MR. REED.

Dr Valintine, Chief Health Officer, who is in Auckland, has replied to the statements made by Mr Vernon Reed (M.P. for the Bay of Islands) and published in our columns on Tuesday evening.

"'The cases reported by Mr Reed," he said to an interviewer, "do not tally with the notifications receK-ed by the Department, though it is quite possible that a large batch of notifications may come to hand at any moment. For example, for the ten days from the 7th to the 16th August, 163 case's of chicken-pox and smallpox were reported in the Auckland province. For the ten days from the 17th to the 26th of August, 46 cases were reported.'

The most serious statement which Mr Reed had made, said Dr Valintine, was about the failure of the lymph, upon which ,the Department was principally relying to prevent the spread of th-e disease. "It means," he added, "that the districts already done will have to be gone through again, and to that end I have wired to Dr Champtaloup, of Dunedin, for six active junior medical students to repatrol the districts in the North. These officers will be stationed at certain strategic points and will kelp in communication with one another. , '

Dr Valintine added that jthe Department had already made arrangements for assistance for Dr Cawkwell at Kaikohe, this being necessary because of Dr Duncan's return to Wellington. He added, however, that it wa.s hoped that ,Dr Duncan's services could be retained because of the knowledge of the work and the districts which he had obtained during the recent strenuous efforts.

Concerning the work of fuoiiga? tion, Dr Valintine said that six inspectors had been trained in Auckland for this work, and they were being sent to various affected districts to act under instructions from local inspectors who were best acquainted with existing conditions. The seven native clergymen who had agreed to < supplement the efforts of the departmental officers at the request of Archdeacon Hawkins, would help towards, having the kaingas thoroughly disinfected.