QUARANTINE CONDITIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17139, 19 April 1919, Page 8

QUARANTINE CONDITIONS.

Earlier criticisms of the arrangements for the quarantining of the Niagara's company at the Motuihi station have been repeated more specifically and candidly by a party of through passengers. Their analysis probably recapitulates the full list of complaints which can bo made against the authorities. Generally, they protest at the lack of preparation for their reception, at the primitive equipment of the station, and at the methods adopted for the enforcement; of the quarantine regulations. No doubt the whole body of passengers and crew of the vessel have a genuine grievance against the Health Department, but there is a tendency to draw vain conclusions from the contrast between the crowded comforts of steamship accommodation, with its proved risk of rapid infection, and the more spacious discomforts of improvised shelter upon the healthier quarantine island. It is generally recognised that the transfer to the island was entirely in the interests of passengers and crew, but there is not the same ready appreciation of the fact that such an arrangement is merely temporary, and therefore involves the acceptance of makeshifts and expedients. The peculiar circumstances involve a less exacting standard of comfort than would be required if outbreaks of infectious disease on passenger ships were normal incidents. But the criticisms of Motuihi conditions cannot be entirely dismissed as the grievances of people smarting under the recollection of inconvenience and discomfort. The unreasonable detention of the ship's company aboard the vessel and the failure of the authorities to prepare for such an emergency in spite of the warnings of past experience constitute substantial grounds for complaint. To this fatal policy of temporising, which has marked the policy of the Health Department ever since the outbreak of influenza in Europe, is duo the confusion and lack of organisation described by the passengers in connection with their disembarkation. It is now to be hoped that the Department will effect reforms without delay. The passenger traffic through Auckland is being rigorously curtailed, but the accommodation at Motuihi is notoriously inadequate for any large number of persons, and would fall far short of the needs of the body of troops carried on any of the transports returning to the Dominion. Mr. Russell has ribed the risk of an epidemic on one of these ships as his greatest anxiety, and it is to be presumed that he will now hasten the improvement of the equipment so that such an emergency will not repeat the discreditable experiences of the Niagara and the Makura, The public does not expect the Department to erect elaborate buildings with luxurious furniture, but it does require the Department to provide sufficient accommodation to meet need.': which nu'y reasonably be anticipated. and to ensure that those detained in quarantine shall be protected from avoidable hardship. In view of the approach of winter, the matter is more urgent than ever.