SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 294, 19 December 1901, Page 2

SMALL-POX EPIDEMIC.

OPINION OF THE CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, last night. The possibility of the small-pox now raging in London being brought into this colony, although considered to bo remote if due precautions are taken, has not escaped the attention of the Public Health Department. Dr. Mason, Chief Health Officer, points out that this colony has the fact in its favor that for the most part incoming vessels from Homo ports do not make New Zealand first place of call. They generally call at Hobart, are sub]ected to inspection by the health authorities there, and a further inspection of a rigid character is made upon arrival here. It has not boon considered necessary to enforce quarantine either as to possible small-pox or plague cases, so long as the inspection is adequate. To obtain this the Department is working in conjunction with the shipping companies, with which a cordial understanding has been come to. Dr. Mason, however, considers that smallpox is a greater danger to the colony than plague, because of the unvaccinated state of the community. Should a case escape the sanitary oordon it should have a heavy penalty to pay. There can, in his opinion, be no possible doubt as to the efficacy of vaccination. Statistics, he says, provo it conclusively, and the colony in his opinion never made a greater mistake than when it introduced the “ Conscience Clause ” with respect to vaccination.