THE PLAGUE.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 365, 15 March 1902, Page 3

THE PLAGUE.

By telegraph—Press Association —Copyright Sydney, Mar. 15. A man named Beckett, engaged in cleansing operations, has been plaguestricken.

In consequence of the plague interfering with business, Mssgrove’s Pantomine was closed suddenly to-night, the company removing to Melbourne.

(Sydney paper.)

Acting on the principle that the best treatment for a disease b to cover it over and hide it somehow, the daily press of Sydney is doing its utmost to minimise the importance of the 1902 plague outbreak But both the business men who eilmiPn n.Vlfl flllA TIPAVS-

papers which accede to those demands are allowing their timidity to overcome their common-sense. The position facing Sydney in 1902 is that a plague outbreak is imminent, which may prove far more serious than that of 1900; and that the proper steps will be taken only if the f.owrvva nf t,ho sit.nn.f.inn - n.vA nrouGirlv at)-

predated. This year a healthy rat inoculated with the virus from one of the plague cases is killed in half the time taken by the poison in 1900, therefore the possibility that the 1902 sample of bubonic disease is worse than its predecessor can’t be overlooked. The centres of contagion aro not out-of-the-way wharves and distant suburbs as in 1900, but business blocks in the very heart of the city, the centres of common resort, where are situated some of the biggest hotels and some of the chief theatres. The opportunities for the dissemination of the disease are therefore much greater than in

1900. With a disease of possibly greater virulence, much more centrally situated, and with, too, a far greater degree of carelessness on the part of the citizens as to infection, it is obvious that in March and April, the plague months, a great—perhaps a very great—number of eases may be reasonably expected. In 1900 it was not till the beginning of May that the disease reached its worst. There is nothing to be gained by silence. It is far better to face a present loss than to blunder blindly into an absolute calamity. During the 1900 outbreak, Attorney-General Wise threatened to criminally prosecute property-owners guilty of gross disregard of decency and sanitation. There were no

prosecutions, and the same threat, now revived in 1902, does not frighten anyone. In 1900 it was pointed out that only a small percentage—practically an insignificant percentage —of the premises in the City of Sydney proper were effectively connected with the sewerage system. The great majority were attached in such a way as to facilitate free circulation of sewer rats, sewer gas, and other abominations in the interiors of houses. Many sewerage pipes, in addition, allowed some of the sewerage matter to perlocato through floorings, and to store itself permanently between walls and ceilings. Prompt legislation was promised, at the time of the exposure, to deal with the evil by giving the Water and Sewerage Board the°power (which it then lacked) of forcing these filthy abuses to be remedied. The

»legislation was, however, never passed. Parliament found it necessary to adjourn in a hurry for the Great Commonwealth Drunk, and a little matter of public health was not allowed to delay the rush for the banquets and the titles. Now prompt legislation is proposed again on this subject (only the Coronation Drunk will be in the road); and it will probably .continue to bo promised, and like other sanitary reforms, only promised, until there is a really effective and continued plague

I scare. And when the legislation arrives it probably won’t be enforced, whereby the I public regret at its lateness of arrival may be lessened somewhat. Sydney has already learned that tho places which were cleaned in 1900 are mostly foul again ; some of the fever dens which wero pulled down then have been rebuilt on the old lines; tho sanitary laws, the sewerage system, the want of a decent Building Act, the divided control of the metropolis among 50 or 60 impotent and wrangling authorities —all these are just j where they were in 1900. Everything, in , fact, is where it was in 1900 except the scandals connected with the £4,000,000 Darling Harbor loan.