TAPANUI.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 180, 20 July 1871, Page 5

TAPANUI.

{From our own Correspondent. )

July 14, 1871. I am sorry to say scarlet fever still continues to increase. There have been seventeen cases in all since this day three weeks, not including two which occurred previous to the disease being understood to ba scarlatina. Mr. James Kerr has lost one boy, and the remainder of his family (six in number) are all down now. Widow Bunton lost one girl last week, and has three now lying under the same disease. Poor woman, a sad trial for her, having lost her husband only a short time since. I don't know- -what she i woiiETcio only for the benevolence of har

f friends, who, after her husband's death, formed a committee for the purpose; of . collecting, some money for her, arul I uiu given to tmtterstainithafr-w-rth thbiaonr'y collected at the-Teviot, Moa Flat, an" other places, by parties who vohuu cere to take lists, the handsome sum of abou. £120 was collected ; but now that this dire disease has come amongst her family, I am afraid it will be considerably reduce that sum, and leave her very little to enable her to join her friends in Queensland, where she intended to go when her family recovered. Mr. Andrew Allan's eldest boy is quite recovered, but I am afraid before you receive this his baby will be in a better world. Mr. «J< hn Symes' two children have been attacked to-day, and also Kerr's eldest girl ; this makes three cases to-day. The doctor tells me that the fever that Kerr's and Bunton's family have is of a more severe nature than what Mr. Purd lie's children had. He says they are browner in the fever than the other children. He has been most persevering in his attention to the patients, having been up night after night, and nursing for hours at the bedside on some occasions when the parents were knocked up with long watching, notwithstanding his own delicate health. No donbt his attention in this sickness will gain him the everlasting respect of the people of Tapanui ; if not, it should.

Thursday (mail day) is generally a lively day in the township, but of late people come and get away as soon as possible, scarcely ever entering a house. Some, as they come and go, appear as if they were looking for the mark of infection on the doors as they pass. The school is closed for a month, I believe, and a stranger walking the street would say such an institution was not wanted, for you will not see a child from morning till night on the street— all are kept inside and separate from their neighbours — a very wise precaution, I believe.