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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3197, 27 September 1881, Page 2

It was only to be expected that a scare such as Sydney has been recently subjected to by the visit of small-pox would result in many cases of individual hardship, but the Sydney papers team with cases which show clearly that as usnal officialdom lost its head when taken out of the beaten track. In many instances whole families have been quarantined in houses where one case of small-pox, or supposed small-pox, had broken out; cut oft from all communication with their friends, in some cases even refused permission to write to their relatives, the condition of many families must have been pitiable in the extreme. Some of the occurrences at the quarantine station itself appear to have been heart-rend-ing. To such an extent did the quarantining of healthy persons in private houses go that a member of the Legislative Assembly brought the matter before the House, and moved an address to His Excellency the Governor declaring that in the opinion of the House the system of imprisoning healthy persons in houses supposed to be infected with small-pox, under an alleged system of quarantine, was tyrannical and cruel, and an infringement of the liberties of the subject. During the debate which followed many of the acts of officials were denounced as arbitrary and illegal, and they were charged with committing the moat gross outrages ever committed in the colony in the name of law. One family of the name of Hughes were specially referred to as having suffered unheard of indignities. The whole family were sent to the quarantine ship, and one speaker " said he held that the fact that Hughes was at once put on to cook was a proof that he was not believed to have the small-pox. He was kept in one part, bis wife put in another, and the children put in another. One of the latter was vaccinated from an impure source—one of Rout's children-~and died in consequence, and it was to see hia children that the unfortunate man swam ashore, for doing which he was treated as a felon. Two of the women at the station were far advanced in pregnancy, and to place these women in the place where the worst patients were received was disgraceful. When a nurse was brought from Sydney to Docherty or Parkes he was found locked in. When the door was opened he was seen sitting with his face torn by his nails and his fingers embedded in the flesh of his face." It is difficult to realise the occurrence of such incidents as these except in a plaguestricken city. The disgraceful way in which some of the patients were treated on being discharged from the quarantine station is referred to as follows in one of the Sydney papers : The second contingent of persons from the healthy ground at the Quarantine Station arrived at Woolloomooloo Bay on Friday afternoon. The party consisted of Mrs Rout and three children; Mr James Keene, wife, and three children ; Mr Thomas M'Keown, wife, and child ; and Mr John Joseph Monaghan, wife, and five children—nineteen persons in all. All but Mr Monaghan and his family were driven home. Mr Monaghan declined to return to his house, urging as a reason that so late as Saturday last it was used by the Government as a " smallpox hospital," the man Fitzpatrick having he had been informed, been sent there and remained until he was inspected by the Government medical officer, after which he was sent to the Quarantine Ground. All the party were significantly reticent as to the treatment which they hare received at the North Head. Whatever the treatment was which the people experienced at North Head, that which the women were subjected to on leaving the ground was so outrageous that, in their indignation, they overcame the silence which they had intended to observe. One of the party, the wife of Mr Monaghan, arrived in town without any underclothing whatever ; and more than this, she had to walk down to the jetty at North Head

barefooted. All that «he then wore were

a brown dress and a hat. She was not only deprived of umlerclo'hiug, but also of a shawl or any other outer ganneut for projection. Unfortunately Mrs Monaghan'a is not an exceptional case. Mrs Rout's attire consisted of little more than a cUes?) shawl) and hat. She was told that there was no clothing suitable to her requiremanta in slock. Mrs Keene and Mrs M'Keown complained that they wero supplied with an insufficient quantity of underclothing, and that they both had to return home only half clad. When Mrs Monaghan went on board the steamer at North Head, she was supplied with a pair of slippers; one of the other women was supplied with a common pair of lace-up boots, but as they were not accompanied with laces, she had to secure them with string. Some of the children were provided with clothing in a much better way, but one, a daughter of Mrs Rout, had to come away partially dressed -