SMALL POX.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 29, 26 May 1914, Page 4

SMALL POX.

The Auckland "Star" trusts that the , Dominion Health Department is j keenly alive to the fact that there ! has been something of a recrudescence of the smallpox in Sydae.y, i and although there occurred in iso- ! luted Maori kaingas last month a few cases of the disease, the danger j of the Australian source of infection | must not be allowed to oiop.out of | sight. The "Star" says: It is a j mistaken policy to view the mk of i the disease lightly because in its pre- | sent manifestation in Australasia it has been non-virulent in type. This characteristic might disappear, and a virulent form devebp without notice; and, in any case, smallpox is a pestilence that we trust will never become endemic, in this country. Just at present the oosition is aggravated in Sydney by a rather unseemly squabble between the Commonwealth and State authorities. The latter have been using the qu >' uii.i'J siatior. „t .North Head fur the isolation of contacts. The Federal authorities, who maintain it, have presented a bill j covering the expenses. The State | has refused to pay, and the Commonwealth has declined to further permit | the use of the station. The \ew , South Walei health authorities have ! nonchalantly ratorUd that in that I

event they cannot undertake the isolation of contacts, but will just vaccinate them and let them go. If isolation of contacts was a desirable precaution, the present action of New South Wales, while it might be expected from' a piqued child, is incomprehensible when it en-mates from a responsible Government. The position wants carefully watching in New Zealand, more especially if the authorities on the other side do not awake to the necessity >f -protecting their own people from the ravages of this scourge.