FEATHERSTON CAMP

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2795, 13 June 1916, Page 4

FEATHERSTON CAMP

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST DISEASE,

A suggestion was oonveycd in a question. asked iu the House last week by H. Poole, that tho canvas camp at- Featherston was-not in a habitable condition. . Jlr. Poole said it had been Teported- to him that the men were up to their knees in mud, and that Major Mac Donald had stated that the cainp was so bad that it was not fit to live in.

• "Major Mac Donald denies havingmade any such statement," said Mr. Allen yesterday. "I visited the camp myself on Sunday, and it looked very well indeed. All the tents are surrounded by plots of ground marked out by stone borders, and nobody is allowed to walk on these plots, so that tho ground immediately surrounding the tents is never trodden on, and can never get mtiddy. All the tents are In wet weathor there must be a certain amount of mud, but on that stony ground it can never bo very bad. 'There was a good deal of mud round about tho cook-houses and diningrooms, but wo are getting over this trouble by having all the paths gravelled, and by laying a tramlino to obviate tho necessity for so much heavy traffic into the' camp. We are , also making a footpath along tho main road, which often was very muddy, to give the men a dry. way out of the camp. Some drainage work is also being done which will keep the water off some parts of -the camp.

"I don't think it is possible for anj opidemic at either of the camps to become at all serious this winter. Irame diately a case of infectious disease oc curs all who have been in contaot witl the patient are isolated. . We had a fev cases of scarlet fever recently, but a! tho contacts were isolated right awai from the camp, and the disease has nol spread. This will be the Tegular proce dure. You cannot prevent outbreaks ol measles. Men bring the infection into camp with them very often, but as soon as a case occurs we isolate the. contacts. I have absolute confidence in the effectiveness of the camp orgarisation, medical and otherwise, to prevent the scriqu! development of an epidemic. .