THE NONSENSE OF THE PLAGUE SCARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11365, 7 May 1900, Page 7

THE NONSENSE OF THE PLAGUE SCARE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir,—As the only member of tho Hospital Board who has resisted, and objected to, the expenditure of the ratepayers' money unnecessarily upon what is called the "plague hospital," I ask for a little space for a few remarks on the question. At tho special meeting urgently called for ton o'clock a.m. last Monday, April 20, I said there, in the presence of the Premier, who came to frighten us into .sponding i> lot of money, that before wo spent any money in building a plague hospital we should be assured on undoubted authority that we had at least a single rase of plague in Auckland, as from inquiries I had made I believed the boy suffering from a rat bite was merely a case of ordinary bloodpoisoning. I also expressed my doubts as to whether they had the bubonio plague even in Sydney, becauso of statements reported in their own papers by medical men of special experience. When my objection to building a plaguo hospital was pooh-poohed and overruled. I endeavoured at tho meeting called tho day after, for arranging to go on with tho building as rapidly as possible, to limit the expenditure to £400, until tho Government had proved upon undoubted authority that we had a single case of plague in tho province of Auckland. I moved to that effect, and it was seconded by Mr. Jamieson, but all the rest voted against us, and decided to go on with tho building, tho plans of which were already drawn, and which wcro stated at the Borough Council meeting, held the evening before, would cost from £800 to £1000. Now, besides this, I consider that the Board has been mado responsible for a great deal that I object to. and which has never boen agreed to by tho Board, and I intond to movo at our meeting on Monday, the 7th inst., for a detailed account of the time and place, and the persons engaged in it, and the means that wore used to bring about all the nonsense for which tho Board has been made financially responsible during tho last week, and the Amount in which it has involved us, and I shall ask for such account to be furnished to you and the press for publication, for the benefit of tho ratepayers, so that they may learn a little of what the Premier and his satellites are capable of when he trios to boss tho show. I want to know, for instance, who offered or induced Dr. Baldwin to accept a position under the Government when he was under engagement to givo three months' notice to the Board before he left their service? I would like to draw attontion to your report in this morning's Herald, which states that Dr. Martin deprecated the uso which Mr. Goldie, the Mayor of Auckland, has mado of the report of Dr. Martin's statements. A3 far as I remember, the Mayor merely qouted Dr., Martin's statement, " that ho doubted if tho rat-bitten boy was a case of plaguo at all, and that the way tho Sanitary Commissioners wero acting would cause an unnecessary scare." Dr. Martin has evidently been called to book for this; no doubt by tho Premier, who had tho consummato audacity to tell the Mayor, in tho presence of tho Hospital Board, that if ho did not move in tho matter of obtaining the site for the plague hospital, ho wouii' move the Mayor out of his position. Tho most ridiculous tiling I hrfvo heard of in tho whole affair was from a member of the honorary medical staff, who declared that while other people wero rigorously enjoined not to go near the isolated patient, Dr. Mason and Mr. Gilruth went freely in and out of tho temporary plague hospital to examine tho boy; then went away and mixed with tho crowd, and took their sudden departure in a crowded steamer to "Wellington; and this after all the barricading nonsense on tho wharf, and all tho quarantining I That they may long remain in Wellington is the prayer of yours, otc, •T. E. Taylor. Water Lea, Mangere, May 5, 1900.