The Globe. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1877.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 797, 11 January 1877, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1877.

The case of the Hurunui, and more recently on our own shores, that of the Cardigan Castle, seems to us to point to the necessity of Bome alteration in the mode of despatching immigrants. There can be no doubt from the facts attendant upon the outbreak .f disease in the former case at any rate, that the medical examination prior to sailing had been of the most perfunctory character. From what we can learn of the facts, it appears that three days after the ship and immigrants had been passed by the nedical inspecting officer, scarlet fever -nade its appearance. Some sixty persona have had to be landed, the ship detained for six weeks, at great cost and incouvenieue, all for the want

nf a more thorough and ssarching system of medical examination. But that is not the worst part. Supposing the ship to have got out of sight of land before the disease broke out, it is not too much to say that the probability of a large mortality would be imminent. Wis;h but scant opportunities for isolation the disease would have but feeble opposition offered to it, and the result mightbemoatcalatnitous. Then again we on this side of the world have a right to complain that the seeds of disease should not be sown amongst our community by the importation into our midst jf persons suffering from infectious or .malignant diseases, the embarkation of whom it is the duty of the' medical inspector to prevent. It ia true that we have hitherto, considtring the large amount of immigration poured in, been singularly fortunate, but the recent cases to which we have alluded seem to point to the conclusion, that the wholesome vigilance exercised in the past has been considerably relaxed. A mere muster of the immigrants just prior to sailing is not sufficient; nor does the ship afford accommodation for that examination which we contend is necessary. It should be made prior to the acceptance of the immigrant, at some convenient depot, or place where the medical officer could make such an examination as would reveal the presence of latent disease. "We trust that, now the importance of the subsubject has been so plainly brought under the notice of the Government, by events which have recently taken place, that steps will be taken, both in the interests of the immigrants and the colonists, to see that a rigid and searching investigation is made before the immigrants are allowed to embark.