The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1919. INFLUENZA PRECAUTIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 173, 16 April 1919, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1919. INFLUENZA PRECAUTIONS

In their latest measure to prevent epidemic'influenza being returned to this country from Australia the Minister of Pubijc Health and his Department have plainly decided to take no risks. A frank admission that the period of twenty-four hours' quarantine hitherto enforced is now inadequate m the case of ships arriving from Australian ports is implied in the decision just arrived at to prohibit all shipping from Australia to New Zealand. Whatever its effect may be in keeping out influenza, the prohibition is likely to_ bo severely felt in other ways if it is maintained for any length of time. Drastic as it is, however, this action quite possibly is fully warranted. There is no other way in which further infection from Australia can bo absolutely prevented, and with the disease raging as it is in the Commonwealth it is hardly possible to go too far in precautionary measures. The Health Department is more likely to be criticised for being too slow in adopting safeguards than for going to extremes. One good.reason for prohibiting shipping from Australia instead of relying upon quarantine restrictions is that the Dominion is at present quite unprovided with quarantine stations worthy of the name. The step 'now taken will relieve an awkward situation by reducing the possible demand upon these establishments, but. since troopshins and other oversea vessels will still be arriving at frequent intervals the question of providing adequate accommodation and equipment at the different quarantine islands remains almost as urgent as ever.

A detailed account uf the out-of-date and inadequate accommodation on Somes Island was given in our news columns some-weeks ago. Most of tho buildings date back forty years. The station no doubt was well enough adapted to serve its purpose in the days of small ships and slow passages, but in thesedays, when a ship frequently carries a complement of well over a thousand, it offers only a fraction of the accommodation that may at any time be required. The only new buildings of any importation the island are two hutments, which would accommodate in the aggregate something less than two hundred people, and a small hospital. These places were built while the island was in use as an internment camp. The old buildings are dirty and dilapidated, their walls worm-eaten and rotten. Tho state of affairs at Mohiihi, the Auckland quarantine station, is some :

what better, but is sufficiently in- j dicatod in the fact that the Health iDenartment has planned extensiveadditional accommodation, though none of it has yet been erected. Considering how long epidemic influenza has been rife in Europe, America, and elsewhere, it is anything but creditable that the task of improving the ouarantinc accommodation in the two principal ports of tho Dominion is only now being approached with an appearance of serious purpose. Th n apathy and lack of enterprise shown in this direction may yet cost the Dominion dear. . A beeinning might easily have been made five months ago upon the ercrtion of the necessary buildings. Had this been done the quarantine stations here, at Auckland, and in other ports, would by this time have been reasonably well equipped. The only thing _to do now is to rcmedv the existing state of affairs with all' possible expedition. .It has been suggested that in an emergency tents may serve as a substitute for quarantine buildings, but, particularly with winter coming mi, tents arc quite unsuitable quarters either fov influenza patients or for thoso who are liable to contract the disease.

In ono of his latest statements, the Minister ok_ Public Health intimates that it is proposed to use the existing buildings on Somes Island to the full extent of their capacity, and also that arrangements' arc being made for thi erection of a number of buildings which arc to be removed from Fcatherston Camp with the utmost speed, in order to increase the acconimod."tion. It has been sufficiently indicated that the only buildings on Somes Island it would bo right to use are of very limited capacity. The latter part of the Minister's statement is satisfactory if it really implies speedy action. Dr. Valintinf, in his recent defence at Auckland of the Department's failure to press on with the necessary work at i Motuihi may have succeeded in

shifting some responsibility from his own Department to Cabinet and tho Public Works Department, but tho point is comparatively immaterial. The thing that matters is that the construction of buildings which are urgently needed in the interests of public health in the Dominion and in justice to those who may have to be detained in quarantine has been unreasonably delayed. It affords some ground for satisfaction, however, that the Minister of Public Health and his Department are now showing themselves fully alive to the necessity of vigorous and decided action where quarantine restrictions and quarantine accommodation are concerned.