THE QUARANTINED MAKURA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 60, 5 December 1918, Page 6

THE QUARANTINED MAKURA

HEALTH OFFICERS' PERFUNCTORY WORK CONDEMNED. By TelecraDri—Press Association. ; Auckland, December 4. The following letter, signed by members of tho Prees delegation, quarantined on the Makura, has been received by the "Herald":"Froni a strong sense of public duty we deem it right to direct public attention to the circumstances following the quarantining of the Makura's passengers and crew at Auckland. The vessel arrived on Saturday evening and anchored in the fairway off' Rangitoto Island, moving up to the quarantine station opposite Motuihi on Sunday morning.,. When three medical officers of the Health Department boarded her they made no examination or inspection of tho .passengers, but were supplied with temperatures and pulse readings previously taken. After a short stay, tho Department's officers left the steamer, and up to the time of writing, CO hours after arrival, no official intimation has been given of the decision arrived at by the Department..

"Some 1 half-dozen patients who had been seen by the health officers were removed to Motuilii. The steamer lias sinco been detained in quarantine without a visit from tho medical authorities. No precautions have been taken by the, Department to safeguard the passengers or crew, except tho removal of the patients beforementioued, and no advice, given by it that would tend to lessen the risk of contracting the disease by the large number of people on board, nor lias any fumigation of tho ordinary cabins or saloons taken place. These are naked facts which admit of no contradiction, and betray an extraordinary lack of appreciation of what ie due to over 500 people who are coinpulsorily detained on the steamer, "Tho elementary step to check the spread of influenza is to prohibit the public congregating together in numbers. In America, Canada, and New Zealand, when fighting the epidemic, theatres, churches, hotels, and other places of public resort were closed, or restrictions enforced. Yet on the Makura 520 people have been forced to live in crowded quarters by the action of tho public health authorities, without any means of protecting themselves from contracting the disease, and; • without one single word of advico being given to tiiem by the Department's medical officers, whose perfunctory treatment of the position is the subject of severe comment by those who are condemned to indefinite imprisonment under conditions which render them specially liable to contraction of the disease. "The New • Zealand Health Department having exercised its power to quarantine the passengers and crew of the Makura, should surely recognise its responsibility to ensure that the health and well-being of those who are affected by its action' will bo fully and completely safeguarded. According to newspaner reports an inhalation chamber was to be established on the vessel. This has not yet been done, and no member of the Health Department's staif is, or has been, on board since Sunday to see that the necessary requirements are carried out. "We now urge on the Department that it should at once reverse the decision it is reported to have arrived at to keep the passengers on board the Makura, and take steps to have them removed to healthy surroundings ashore. We cannot helMadding reluctantly, but very deliberately, that in our judgment the attitude of the Department is less likely to safeguard fhnii to menace the health of those on board the Hakura."