PUBLIC HEALTH.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 18 March 1927, Page 9

PUBLIC HEALTH.

NEED FOR STRICTER PRECAUTIONS. By Cable-Press Association —Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. MELBOURNE, March 16. Embodying the resolutions which were passed by tbo International Pacific Health Conference in Melbourne in December, a report was tabled in tho House of Representatives, a. feature ot which is a recommendation that a special system of intelligence should be established between the health adtnims tratious of the islands in the Pacific south of the Equator and lying between longitude 140 east and 140 west. The object of the service would be to better the prevention of the spread of epidemic diseases and the improvement of public health measures generally. It would supplement, but- not replace, tho work of the Eastern Bureau of tho League of Nations’ health organisation at Singapore. 'J’ho region covered would be known as the Austral Pacific Regional zone and would include Australia, New Zealand, Papua, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, the Gilbert and Ellis Islands, Fiji, Samoa, the Cook Islands, the Tahiti group and Tonga.

The Commonwealth would keep in touch, with sources of information outside the regional zone in connection with ep"domic diseases, which might occur in the countries bordering on the Pacific. Recommendations dealing with quarantine co-o.peratfon between countries in the regional zone are also agreed upon. '.the conference recommends consideration of the possibility of establishing a modern laboratory in association with tho central health administration of each.territory and the equipping of a vessel as a mobile laboratory ior investigation and medical patrol work.