MOTUIHI ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 177, 22 April 1919, Page 4

MOTUIHI ISLAND

COMPLAINTS OF QUARANTINED PASSENGERS.

Many complaints about the condition, ot the quarantine station 011 Motuihf Island, Auckland, were made 'by passengers who lvore landed from the mail steamer Niagara. The passengers stated that while the people of Auckland had the right to be protected from anything which would endanger their health, the passengers also had the right to be protected. The arrangements made on the island constituted an extreme danger to the health of the people of New Zealand.' Proper quarantine was not carried out, .conflicting instructions were given by the medical officers as to how it should be carried out, and 110 effort was made to prevent the "contacts" from mingling with the sick and infected persons. Under the arrangements it was not possible to refrain from breaking quarantine precautions. All passengers were coining into contact with each other. Uius facilities wero provided for the dissemination of tlio disease throughout the island, in sjiite of the supervision of Dr. Iv. H. Makgill and M;ijor Pettit. A "contact" camp was established within a few yards of the camp for the first-class passengers, who were free to walk about among the "contacts," nor were they prevented or instructed not to do so. There was much mingling with the con-, valescent cases, also. There was no system of segregation, and the arrangements on the island were undoubtedly more favourable to the spread of' the disease than to the control of it. The passengers referred to the movements of Dr. Makgill in going to and ' from the city to the island as being likely to spread infection, and asserted ■that six first-class passengers, who had gone over to the second-class camp, were given permits to leave the island, and on the day they left the camp another case developed._ One. of the passengers who left tile island under pormit was staying at an Auckland hotel four days before the, remainder of the through passengers were released. The crews of t'he small steamers who went down to Motuihi to bring the passengers and their Inggago to Auckland mixed freely with tho people 011 the island, and some workmen from the city who wero engaged in erecting a gasolene engine were allowed lo go back to the city without any precautions having boen taken to prevent them propagating infecti.m. Complaint was made Unit Dr. Makgill "promised the passengers "before they left tho ship that the compound system would bi- .'hUiiiln], wh tent to bo a compound, so that if the member of one tent developed a high temperature only those in that tent would be .regarded as being under strict observation. and (licse in' other tents would not bo affected or be requited to undergo an extended period of quarantine. The promise tnado was not kept. One woman passenger, who had be?n under medical treatment on the voyage, and had been attended by the ship's • doctor, developed a high temperature while 011 the island, and. notwithstanding the fact that' a responsible officer was informed by (ho woman's husband of the nuture of tlie case, it was insisted that she should bo regarded as a ausnicious influenza ease. Tho passengers alleged, further, that the medical officers paid no attention to the convenience of the passengers; in fact, the.v appeared to go out of their way to make things inconvenient. The passengers wero told one afternoon that they wero to. be released the following day, but in the meantime a passenger, the woman referred to, developed a temperature, and on the next morning, despite the fact that some of the tents had been dismantled and that all the passengers had packed their '>eloiwings, the.v wero all sent back lo tho camp. •