The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1924. PLAGUE DANGER

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12015, 18 December 1924, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1924. PLAGUE DANGER

The Public Health Department ft® B well to emphasise the importance of all ; local authorities, especially those connected with our main ports, continuing actively their anti-rat campaign. The department—to quote the language used by its own expert in the letter received by the Wellington City Council on Monday last—has received ‘‘grave report as to serious outbreaks of plague in- Los Angeles and South Africa” ; and it, therefore, urges the council to continue its war against rats and mice, which are well known to be most dangerous carriers of pneumonic as well as of bubonic plague. “Wellington being a port, particular attention is required,” the department points out, “as danger from plague is greater than perhaps in other centres.” This, of course, alludes to the peril of local rats, especially those about our warehouses,, Harbour Board sheds, and wharves beconw ing infected by rats getting ashore from overseas vessels trading from the countries where the plague has broken out. “It is, therefore, of the utmost import, ance,” declares the departmental expert, “that no effort should be spared in this matter. When it is remembered that one (pair) rat alone will produce some 50 or 60 rats per year, it is easy to understand that constant war must be waged against these rodents, and also against mice. I would ask that your council do its utmost, and impress upon the public its duty. Special attention should be devoted to municipal property, such as dumps, etc.” j So far so good; and it is reassuring to know that the City Council has taken in hand with renewed energy the destruction of rats at the various city tips, etc. It would be still more reassuring, however, if the citizens of Wellington, and the people of the Dominion generally, could he assured that the Health Department itself is doing its utmost to prevent ship rats getting ashore, thus certainly adding to the rat population whioh the local authorities are trying to diminish, and, if infected, very possibly causing an outbreak of plague here as serious as those already existing in California and South Africa. It would be interesting to know just exactly what the Health Department is doing in this direction. Is it, as it urges our City Council to do, doing its utmost and sparing no effort in this matter P The Mayor (Mr R. A.

Wright) assured the City Council that the Health Department ‘ ‘was doing a great deal, as he personally knew.” But the only specific precaution he is reported as having mentioned savours rather of comic opera than of commonsense. “Recently,” Baid His Worship, “a boat arrived from California, and the department had watchmen on it all night to see tht no rats left the boat.” He did not state what the watchmen were instructed to do in case they saw any. rats breaking the rules and regulations and. gping ashore. Were they to put salt on their tails, or what ? It would make a hilarious pantomime scene—a corps of valorous watchmen, each armed with a salt-cellar and a spoon, guarding each rat-infested ship in the chief port of the rat-infested Cannibal Islands, in the days before • rattraps were invented, and before the fa. mous Dick Whittington, “thrice Lord Mayor of London,” brought his no less famous cat there! It is a wonder our Public Health Department didn’t put cats on duty as well as, or instead of, the watchmen. A cat at each side of the gangway and a cat at the ship end of each hawser would be a long way more effective; surely, than the most vigilant squad of watchmen could possibly be. To be sure, there would be the difficulty of making the cats “stay put,” as the children say. But if each cat was tightly tied by its tail to a gangway stanchion'or to the hawser it had to guard, it could not very well help staying put and keeping wideawake, too. What the public want to know —and they have every right to know—is whether the Health Department itself is wide awake and doing its very utmost in regard to this vitally important matter. Comic opera is all very well, in! its proper place. But if a plague Tat skipped boldly ashore right under the j very eyes of a comio opera watohman, i and he wasn’t quick enough with his! baton, or his salt-cellars, or .whatever other weapon he was armed with, the results would be anything hut a comic opera to the people of New Zealand—and to the department responsible for not having taken more effective men. sures. At the close of the meeting of the Harbour Board last evening a convivial hour was spent in view of the approaching festive season. The toasts of the staff, the board, the chairman and others were proposed in felicitoiv terms, and the ohairman said the off ciency and service in Wellington her hour was the highest in tire Souther l ' Hemisphere. The speakers anticipated a period of great prosperity for the Dominion, amd of considerable development in the work of the Harbour Board, including the recalamation of Evans Bay, the building- of a Sea wall into the harbour for further protection of shipping, and other extensions of accommodation.