THE CHINESE LEPER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 155, 26 January 1871, Page 6

THE CHINESE LEPER.

(To the Editor)

Sir, — I see in your last issue the announcement of the death of the Chinaman who was affected with leprosy. I, and many others, wish to know the immediate cause of death. Was it from the above named disease, or from want of proper attention ? From what I have been able to ascertain, I am inclined to believe that the latter was the immediate cause of death. I will state as briefly as possible what I have been able to learn about the case. A little more than three months since it was reported to the aiithorities that there was a case of leprosy at Tuapeka Flat. The doctors visited the place, and reported that a Chinaman was suffering from that disease. A portion of one of his feet and one of his hands being rotted away. On the strength of that report, the Warden caused a small hut to be erected in one of the most unsuitable and unapproachable parts of the town. The patient was removed to this place. He was then so far in health that he was able to walk about and attend to himself. How long he continued so, I have not heard ; but from the state he was in when found dead, it must have been some considerable time since, as he was nothing but a skeleton. I have enquired in what way his wants were attended to, and am informed that uncooked provisions were taken him every day, and left at the door. Wood was also left outside imchopped. I could not believe that his food was left in such a manner, but was assured that such was the case, as a stinking uncooked leg of mutton was lying on the floor of the hut at the time a number of the townspeople visited the place one morning shortly after the death was reported. Orders were given for a grave to be dug close to the hut ; and when it was ready, a rope was fastened to the body, and it was dragged into its final resting place and covered up. Now, Sir, I ask you, and I ask tho9e in power, and the five clergymen resident in the town, and also the congregations who sit under them, if everything was done that could be done to alleviate the sufferings and

supply the wants of this poor diseased piece of humanity, or have any of them thought it within their province to make enquiries concerning this poor outcast? I am informed that the doctors stated that the disease was not contagious among Europeans, so that fear of being affected with it cannot be urged as an excuse for what I consider gross neglect to a fellow creature. Oh that I had the pen of a Dickens to depict the sufferings of that poor Chinaman for the last three months, in the midst of a so-called Christian community, where money is being collected to send to missionaries in distant lands to preach the Gospel to savages, and teach them to wear clothes which are supplied them by our townspeople. — I am, &c,

Humanity.