INFECTED SHELLFISH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 23, 12 November 1943, Page 5

INFECTED SHELLFISH

BOROUGH COUNCIL'S INTEREST

1)1 "I AI LED JiEPOUT SOUGH'.!

Following the widespread publicity given to the surmise that the shellfish in the Whakatane River were a possible source of typhoid owi*"«g to their infected state and the subsequent move by the Health Department forbidding their taking for human consumption, the Borough Council, which to date has heard nothing official has decided' to ask the local Health Inspector for a ! detailed report on the subject. Raising the question at last Monday's meeting Cr J. Creekc asked for the views of councillors on the question of possible pollution of the river, it was only right that such subjects should be fully discussed, he claimed, but as far as he knew there had been no eases of t% r plioid notified in the Borough for the past 20 years. Personally he would like to see something of the evidence. Cr Sullivan said that with the tidal rise and fall and the little bit of drainage which entered the river from the Borough he too failed, to see where any real contamination could take place. He realised that the banning of shellfish would raise a very sore point with the .Maoris who considered that it was depriving them of a regular food. However he did not wish to criticise the Health Officer for his action but felt that the Borough should have had some knowledge of it beforehand. The Mayor: We have had no communication from the Health Department whatever. Commenting that all the sewage from Rotorua went into the lake, and that both Pakeha and Maoris took the shellfish and trout from it Cr Sullivan then moved that the Health inspector be asked to furnish a report to the Council on the subject setting out details of what actuated: him in passing on such, a recommendation. This was unanimously adopted and carried.