TYPHOID AT FLAXMILLS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1569, 12 October 1912, Page 4

TYPHOID AT FLAXMILLS.

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER,

Tlio lion. It. Beaton Hhodos (Minister for Public Health) made n statement to the House of Representatives yosterday y& garding typhoid fever at flaxniiils, and tho statements made a few days ago in the House (hat the Public Health Department had neglected its duty. The statement was to Hie effect that although the Department had been notified of a case of typhoid at one of the- mills the district licaitu inspector did not visit that mill until a month had clapssd. M r hen the statement was mado ho had not been in a position to deny tho statement, but he had sinco inquired into the allegations, and, while lie believed that tho statement had been made in all good faith, he had found that in tho case referred to the patient had been ill for o month, but the illness was not diagnosed as one of typhoid until that time. In every case in which a case of typhoid was reported tho sanitary inspector in tho distriot visited the mill. In order to reassure honourable members that the Department was not going to neglect this business, and that they were fully alive to the seriousness of the position, he stated that he had decided to send a health officer to inspect all the nulls in the Manawatu district, and the Minister for Labour had promised to send an officer of tho Labour Department to inspect tho quarters of the men. There was some doubt as to whether the Health Department had power to lay down regulations for the supply of water, but if it proved necessary the Prime Minister had promised to introduce a clause in his amending Bill definitely to bring water supply' within the scope of regulations under the Act. Amendments were being drafted also to enable the Department to enforce cleanliness in the water Eupply not only of flasmills, but of factories.