CASE OF SMALLPOX

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 46, 24 February 1930, Page 10

CASE OF SMALLPOX

FOUND ABOARD AORANGI

MSSENGERS ISOLATED

, (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") ■■ -. ' . AUCKLAND, This Day. A case of smallpox was reported on the Aorangi on her arrival from Vancouver last evening, aud the Health De-partment-withheld .permission for the vessel to berth. Sho was anchored m the .stream for the night, and at 8 o'clock this morning proceeded to the quarantine, station at Motuihi. to laud the passengers while the ship is .fumigated. .The instructions of the Health Department last night were that passengers for New Zealand must remain on the island'until the possibility of infection has disappeared—a period possibly of three weeks. Through passengers for Sydney, after beiug vaccinated, will be permitted to rejoin the ship this evening/ when, the Union • Company hopes to dispatch her for Sydney under quarantine. It will be left for Australian health authorities to decide whether these passengers may land at Sydney. The jjatient concerned is a young woman travelling second-class ironi Vancouver to Sydney. . The District Health Officer, Dr. T. J. Hughes, . who visited the ship soon after her arrival, described it as a mild case. ' _ No cargo for Auckland will bo landed from the Aorangi, but English, and American letter-mail was brought ashore last evening. The Aorangi brought 1700 bags of English and American mail for .New Zealand. After, the vessel had anchored, a launch hired by the Postal Department-brought ashore 201 bags of letter mail, of which 161 bags were dispatched South by the Main Trunk express last evening, the other 40 bags being for Auckland. MEDICAL PRECAUTIONS. Dr. Hughes said the patient contracted the disease before joining . the Aorangi at Vancouver. The period of incubation must have ended about the time the vessel was at Suva, for it was the day after leaving that' port that smallpox symptoms were observed. The young woman had been isolated oil the ship and every possible precaution had been taken. She would be landed at Motuihi and placed in isolation. The passengers will be vaccinated while on the island,.and the ship will be thoroughly fumigated.said Dr. Hughes. Passengers booked for New Zealand .will have to remain on the island in the meantime. The accommodation in quarantine quarters is good' and there is ample room for all who arc obliged to remain there. The .victualling of passengers during their stay, which may last<for two or three weeks, will be a matter for arrangement between the Health Department'and the Union Company. After the fumigation of the Aorangi is completed the passengers bopked for Australia will be re-embarked and the steamer will then return to Auckland and anchor in the stream; she will not be permitted to berth. It is hoped to dispatch her for Sydney about 9 o'clock this evening. New Zealand passengers who have booked by the Aorangi for Sydney, will be permitted to join the vessel this evening: after the steamer has been fumigated. It is lik.ely that passengers thus joining at Auckland will be.obliged to undergo vaccination. If was stated by the Union Company's officials that it was not intended to discharge the New Zealand ca.rgo on the Aorangi. Instead, it would be taken ;to Sydney, and there transhipped to the Dominion. Unloading the liner at Motuihi would involve transhipment into lighters, and without the usual port facilities the operation would, take too long. . The prohibition' against landing has come as an unpleasant surprise to the. passengers, a.mong whom are the noted golfers Walter Hagen and J. H. Kirkwood,,who were, to play a match, at Titirangi to-morrow; and, the Canadian members of the party of Empire farmers who are to tour the Dominion. / As it is the end of the tourist season in New Zealand and Australia, the passenger list is a light one, numbering about 200. -y-'/ ■ ' •■•■■■

"Until further notice, the public will not be, allowed to visit' the part of the island which'has been used as a'marine park for the last two season's. When advised of the positionlast evening, the Town Clerk, Mr. J. S. Brigham, said that the Minister of Health had made it quite clear that in the event of any such occurrence the island would be completely closed to the public. - The Director-General of Health may provide doctors, nurses, and other persons to attend persons in .quarantine; Their remuneration is to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund, and treated as a debt due to the Crown by the owners or, agents of the ship. The owners or agents are also required to furnish provisions, medicines, and fuel for cooking" and" heating to persons in quarantine, whether on the ship or in a quarantine station ashore, to the satisfaction of the Port Health Officer or Medical Officer of Health. Alternatively, the authorities may obtain supplies and charge the ship with the cost.