ALLEGED LEPER STATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12241, 9 April 1903, Page 5

ALLEGED LEPER STATION.

SITE ON MOTUIHI ISLAND. PROTEST BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. STRANGE OFFICIAL RETICENCE. The alleged intention of the Public Health Department to establish a leper station on the island of Motuihi gave rise to an animated discussion at yesterday's meeting of the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. The President (Mr. B. Kent) said he had been told that afternoon that they were having a leper hospital established right at their doors, viz., on the island of Motuihi. If this were so, the Chamber should protest against it with all its might, as it was most unwarrantable that an island so suitable for a health and pleasure resort should be dovoted to such a purpose as that stated. Mr. W. J. W. Philson said that the leper station was being established on the southeast portion of the island. The Health Department had erected a house there already, and they were now preparing to place two inmates there. One of these, he believed, had not yet. been caught, as he was hard to get hold of, and the other was a Chinaman in the South. Tho Health Department, which now had practically power to do what it liked, was following its usual tactics. He did not "think such a beautiful spot as Motuihi should be devoted to such a purpose as a leper station. It was not the only available island. Cuvier, a barren island, on which there was nothing but goats, would, for example, be a more suitable place. They could not always expect to enjoy the present courtesy of Mr. Reid in regard to Motutapu, and Motuihi would make a very pleasant picnic and excursion ground. - At present the island was used as a. quarantine station, but even that, ho considered, should be shifted at some future time, and if it were not shifted the Government would not be justified in landing a shipload of passengers on an island with a leper station on one end of it. He considered that the Chamber should protest in the strongest maimer possible against what was being done. Mr. A. H. Nathan said they had nothing official before them. He thought they should write to the chief health officer and ask him whether the report was true before they took action. Mr. Philson said there was no need to proceed with any diffidence in the matter. Mr. J. H. Upton said that Mr. Philson spoke apparently with knowledge, and perhaps he would give the source of his information. Mr. Philson: I cannot do that. Mr. Upton said the Chamber did not represent the whole; city, but the Mayor did, and ho should be approached on the matter and asked to uso all possiblo influence to prevent the proposal being carried out. Mr. Fowlds, M.H.R., said ho was surprised at the matter being brought up now. In October last he heard that something of the kind was contemplated, and he at once saw Dr. Makgill (district health officer), from whom he gathered that it was a fact. Sir Joseph Ward, Minister for Public Health, was hero at the time, and he (Mr. Fowlds) interviewed him on the subject, and told him there would bo no end of a row if such a thing were done, and that it would be well to stop it at once. Sir Joseph at once sent a telegram to Dr. Mason (chief health officer), instructing him to take no further steps in the matter. He gathered that Sir Joseph had got sufficient information as to the undesirabloness of having a leper station at Motuihi, and that nothing more would be heard of the matter. If, however, what was now stated was true, the Chamber should join with all classes of the community in putting a. stoo to it. The President: Is it not a fact, Mr. Philson, that a house is now being put up? Mr. Philson: It is nearly finished. I think the Chamber should at once telegraph to Sir Joseph Ward. On Mr. Upton's suggestion Mr. Philson moved, and it was carried, "That the president wait upon the Mayor and confer with him in the matter." After leaving the above meeting our representative sought to obtain some information on the subject of the proposed leper station from Dr. Makgill, district health officer, but, although pressed for information, he declined to make any statement beyond saying that " nothing decisive" had been done in the matter.