The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3445, 7 March 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1874

That bo many vessels arrive' with immigrants Buffering from contagious diseases, leads to the conclusion that, there is fault in the Home arrangements. We have no doubt there is j but where is it ? Onejournal condemns Dr Feathbrsxon for sending out the "sweepings of the streets,” |and says these are not the people we want. Precisely so if it be true. Another paper is very wroth with theQeneral Government for continuing Dr Featherston in office, and blames him for all the sickness and fever exported, from England in thn Mongol, the Scimitar, and the Carnatic. Our contemporaries may possibly be quite correct in their hurried deductions, but we are not sure they are justified in them from the facts before them. Por our own parts, we never had confidence in Dr Fbatherston, for we have no reason to believe thatr lie possesses the uecess&ry bjiai* ness qualificationi for the post‘of AgentGeneral. Nothing in his f'ew Zealand career nor his antecedents justified the appointment. He was not trained to those mercantile pursuits, a thorough knowledge of which alone can fit a mau competently to fulfil the complicated duties he has to perform. In all his doings imperfect business '^J on P e ®P ß out. His correspondence .With the Ministry, bis want of tact in transmission of railway plant, his mode of deallnß Y 1 - . ®bipownera ami shipping agents, and his inability to organise an efficient emigration agency, all point to this, and probably are traceable mainly to it. There can be no doubt his position is an enereus one, and that through much of what he has had to do being alike f ; esh to him and to New Zealand he has had to grapple with difAcuities not anticipated.. In consequence the blew Zealand^Government have had to transact touch of the work for him, and thus they been hampered with having tp teach

him what to do and with having had it done badly. But that scarcely justifies the conclusion that he is to blame for the breakin out of fever and measles on board the vessels we have mentioned. Before arriving at that decision careful inquiry should be made. We in Otago, see the result without ..being ao>-. quainted wilh the state of affairs'preceding it We find three vessels, sailing about: the same time, from the same port, with emigrants who have been lodged in the same place, and consequently been subjected to like influences, with, very naturally, similar consequences. Thoaeconaequences are disastrous enough ; but bedause they occurred we do not think ourselves justified in a hasty condemnation of Dr Feathkrston for not 'foreleeing-what it was impossible any-man could foretell. At the same time, as this is peculiarly a branch of the department that the Agent-Geceral should be fitted to Understand; ~ ~we thinkr- it highly- necessary very strict inquiry should be made : as to the sanitary arrangements at the Plymouth and other immigration depots, ihe isnergetic precautions adopted,on the arrival of immigrants by our Board of Health have jthus far sufficed to prevent any wide-spread damage to;the public hea'th, through:imported sickness. How far we are indebted tprthe natural healthiness of the olimatefcpd--the comfortable position of the inhabitants cot r Dunedin: for this immunity, .is also an important feature in the-.con-' sidcratron. But leaving that’ put . .of sight altogether, there is every reason to believe we j are, indebted. freedom jfrom contagion to the, energetic disinfecting processes to which ships,, luggage, and passengers are subjected oh their arrival.. If this be true; and if such concentrated danger of disease as must exist in confined areas like 'those of immigrant ships can be counteracted by sanitary, •measures, it: is not i too much to 'require like precautions to be taken prior to jthe embarkation of, the passengers. Before the, news . arrives of the. .disastrous passages ;of the Mongolj! Carnatic, and dcimitqr, other, jyesaels may have left , bearing in them the iaeeds of disease, aud it‘is hot. unnatural ito expect similar results. When passengers ipresent no symptoms of disease, the germs jof which may'be growing in L their clothCa or uususpepted on their persons, they bear .about; them unknowingly that, ivhich : .is : dangerous to themselves- and all arouhd them; but they also carry about them waat may be rendered harmless by means k'hbwh to j science.Dr Feathbrston s fault,' if be be. to blame, must be that of not seeihgto prdjper; sanitary prbcahu-.hi bOingtaken prior tb'the 5 embarkation of the immigrants. U ufortuuately so little is known Pf sanitary science.evoa Iby well to do and well educated people, that. ;it may be truly said they continue 'to live r | through accident, notwithstanding the pains : they take to kill themselves. iS,p wonder that, 'the class from which immigrants!are taken 5 ■neglect precautipns : and as the office of-a medical man is to cure disease, aad not to prevent it, the obvious duty of guarding against • its introduction into an immigrant ship may have escaped, the doctor's notice. .Equally ; likely is it—perhaps more likely—that it ; would have nob been thought of bya nonmedical agent. We are all so wise after a disastrous fact, than each ef us would have been able to prevent it—had we thought of it beforehand ; but as our knowledge will only reach Dr Fbatberston three months after it would have been useful to bim,in all fairness we should suspend our judgment until we know whether or not he has guilty of culpable carelessness. ‘