THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8999, 12 March 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 12, 1888.

Whatever may bo the difference of opinion as to the urgency of federation of the colonies, there are some subjects on which joint, if not federal, action should bo promptly taken, and of these the most urgent is quarantine. It is known that considerable annoyance was felt by the authorities in New South Wales because the small-pox patient who arrived in these waters by the Mariposa, on her last trip from San Francisco, was not taken ashore here, and placed in quarantine. That such a course would have been the proper one, in the interest of the public health of the colonies, is beyond question. Any other course was a continuance of danger to the other passengers remaining on board, and tended to propagate and disseminate the malignant disease among denser and larger populations; and though fortunately on this occasion, so far a3 yet appears, no evil has resulted, the conveyance of the plaguestricken patient to Sydney was an improper proceeding. At the same time it was en regie, and under present arrangements, or lack of arrangement, there seemed nothing for it at Auckland but to order the mail boat to stand off, and to clear out of the harbour with its infected on board. On the strictly commercial principles on which our intercolonial relations are at present based, there was no obligation resting on us to undertake the safeguarding of a sick man on his way to the sister colonies. Our quarantine station is |

conducted on economical principles, •which no doubt have become even more severe under the influence of the " roar" for retrenchment; and the paraphernalia necessarily attendant on the reception and proper treatment of a patient suffering from a very malignant disease, would be a strain ,on the resources of the establishment not warranted without specific orders and instructions, if not appropriations for the purpose. Be this as it may* there is no provision existing either here or in any other part of the Australasian colonies for arresting the voyaging of the plague at the first point of touching shore, and. the notorious history of the German liner Preussen may be at any .time repeated. That plague-smitten vessel carried her sick and dying patients to every port, when making the circuit around Australia and whereas the landing of the solitary patient, ill of small-pox, at King George's Sound in Western Australia, would have arrested the disease, the several ports of Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney were compelled to receive in their quarantine stations their quota of sick and of suspected passengers, and to conductespecially Sydney — a prolonged and anxious struggle with the plague in a developed and aggravated form. Fortunately such development did not attend the small-pox on board the Mariposa, but all the same the increase of danger, from the utter impossibility of securing effective isolation on board a steamer, is so great that it is of imperative necessity that such a case as that of small-pox should be removed from the ship, and treated ashore at the very first point of contact with land. This was the primary principle in the Federal Quarantine as formulated by the Intercolonial Sanitary Conference of 1884, but which unfortunately has yet reached the stage only of a proposal; but, seeing the time that must elapse before i the federal theory is realised, it does seem to be the duty of the Governments of colonies, which are as the outposts of the group, to have provision made for coming to the help of plague-stricken ships at the earliest moment oftheir requirements being made known. - We may not set much value on quarantining as a rule, and it is known that it is in some countries virtually abandoned as an antiquated and profitless procedure. But in our circumstances, and in relation to the most malignant diseases, it has, probably in consequence of our less close commercial relations with the seats and centres of infection, been for so far effectual. The two great worst mala—cholera and small-pox—have as yet been warded off successfully grappled with and even the immunity for a few years more is worth the continuance of precautions. But whatever may be our belief or disbelief in the efficacy of quarantine in general, there can be no question in any mind as to the importance of removing from a crowded ship of a patient stricken with a highly infectious and dangerous malady, to some place where real isolation can be obtained. And pending the establishment of a system of federal quarantine, we hope that New Zealand will never again be chargeable with such an unneighbourly and improper proceeding, as compelling a vessel to take away a patient ill of small-pox, without any regard for the safety of the passengers on board, and in utter indifference to the interests and the feelings of the sister colonies.