A WAIKATO PROTEST.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 14612, 30 August 1913, Page 5

A WAIKATO PROTEST.

LAXITY OV HE.ALT£TDEPAHTMENT.

"A-G-ILtoEllT SULLIVAN OPBJU."

HAMILTON, August 0. 2

•.Sitrong 1 comments were niadu at the. Hamilton Borough Council on the attitude of tho Health Department as regards the smallpox epidemic. ■

Tho Mayor stated a deputation of Natives waited on him. yesterday appealing for medical assistance to be sent to the pahs where there is much illness apart from smallpox. Medical men are refusing to visit the camps also. Solely they want sustenance the same- as the kia'ngas, be.ing on the verge of starvation, and the Natives having no food and no money find being prohibited to leave the camp they have no means, of earning 'any. The Health Department, said the Mayor, had taken tho administration uf< health laws out of the hands of local bodies, but immediately struck trouble and shirked their responsibilities. It was impossible for the local I inspector to supervise all the camps ■in the Waikato, which, were Very scattered and stretched ovler a wide area. Tho consequence was that the Natives wandered and the deputation which called at h's office was from & badly infected, camp. The attitude of the Department all through, he said, rivalled a Gilbert Sullivan opera. It was decided to send a strong protest to the Minister demandug more stringent measure:? tt> wipe out the disease in the Waikato, more strict supervision of the movements of NVti tivo», ; and attention to their wants.