FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22985, 12 March 1938, Page 10

FIFTY YEARS AGO

NEED FOR QUARANTINE The need for quarantine regulations half a century ago was emphasised when a passenger from San Francisco who was suffering from small-pox was not landed in Auckland, but was taken to Sydney. The following editorial comment was made in the Xkw Zealand Hkralo of March 12, 1888: — "In the Australasian colonies thero arc some subjects on which joint action should be promptly taken, and of these the moat urgent is quarantine The two worst maladies —cholera and small-pox—have as yet been warded oil or successfully grappled with. But whatever may be our belief in the efficacy of quarantine in general, there can be no question in our mind as to th*» importance of removing Irom a crowded ship a patient stricken with a hisildv infectious and dangerous malady to some place where real isolation can he obtained. And pending the establish? nient 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 tako away a passenger ill of small-pox, without any regard for the safety of the passengers, and in utter indifference t.» the interests and feelings of the sister colonies."