QUARANTINE REGULATIONS AT HOBART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13355, 8 December 1906, Page 8

QUARANTINE REGULATIONS AT HOBART.

"A SIMPLE FARCE."

A NEW ZEALANDER'S COMMENTS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

. Wellington, Friday. Ix an interview with a Post reporter, Mr. Harold Beauchamp, of Wellington.'■• who returned from England by the Corinthic, made, some very straight forward comments ■ on the manner in which the- quarantine regulations had been enforced at Hobart, and the lack of hospital accommodation on big liners' to cope with extensive outbreaks of disease, such as smallpox: The pleasure of the voyage out to the; colony was greatly marred by the. outbreak, which, he said,* was reported October 29, " four days, after the Corinthic left Teneriffe, and. 12 days before arrival at ; Capetown. Fortunately the case was detected in the earliest stage of * the" disease, and thanks to the prompt effective measures taken, by the captain and doctor? to completely isolate the patient (a second-class passenger) and her husband, no further cases occurred. ■; Had the disease spread amongst;the.large community (over 800 souls, including passengers and crew), it was not pleasant to contemplate the consequences. What struck a traveller on these huge ocean,liners' was the totally inadequate hospital 'accommodation provided for infectious diseases. Had there been a serious outbreak on the Corinthic" it would, he firmly believed, have been impossible to have isolated more, than 'a dozen patients. The Government ought to take up - this question '.with the English' Board of Trade. Upon arriving at Capetown the first-class passengers, after medical inspection, were permitted to land, but a. different fate ,;. awaited all classes at Hob.irt. V ' The deputy-health officer, after rigo ous inspection and communication with his chief, then in Sydney on furlough, decided to allow only such passengers to land as were booked for Australian ports. In spite of the facts that, subsequent to the outbreak of the smallpox, the patient and her husband had been put ashore at Capetown, that the majority of the passengers had been vaccinated, and that the ship was thoroughly fumigated from stem to stern, apparently it did not: strike the • aforesaid medical officer that if any disease or germs did exist on the ship, such germs, in ail probability, would have been freely disseminated in Tasmania by the 28 passengers for Australian ports (who landed at Hobart), as well as three medical men, a Customs officer, the pilot, a post office official, and two ;representatives of the shipping company, who paid frequent . visits to the steamer whilst she lay alongside the. wharf. Surely quarantine in the circumstances mentioned was nothing more nor less' than ; asimple farce. The ship was detained at' Hobart for nearly 40 hours,, as the cargo for that port (562 tons) had to be landed by the ehip's _crew. - It appeared that shore labourers would; have been allowed to ; assist in this work - if .they had submitted to vaccination, or could have shown recent vaccination marks, but this 'they declined tO do! -*,;?",,; ? ; ;■.; "V u ;";.;,. ... . ' .-..''.','.