OUTBREAK OF ENTERIC

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1007, 8 October 1912, Page 3

OUTBREAK OF ENTERIC

Mr J. Robertson, M.P., asked the Minister of Public Health on Friday what steps had been taken to cope with the outbreak of typhoid fever among the flaxmill workers in the Manawatu. The Hon. R. H. Rhodes said he had been informed of a case at Jarvis’s mill, and he immediately telegraphed to the inspector at Palmerston North to proceed to the mill and investigate the matter. Pie had been informed since that two fresh cases had occurred in another mill, and he had also given Instructions for these to be investigated. Samples of drinking water had been forwarded for bacteriological examination. He expected the inspector’s icoort at any time. In conversation with a Standard reporter yesterday, Dr. A. A. Martin, superintendent of the Palmerston North Plospital, stated that there are at present in the institution four men suffering from enteric fever in a severe form. All the men are flaxmill hands and came from the same mill. About six or eight months ago there were also tour or five cases of typhoid lever from another mill. All the typhoid patients received from the hospital here have come from the flaxmilling area, and nearly all are flaxmill hands. The cases at picscm. in hand are all very seriously ill, and one patient is very dangerously ill. It was pointed out by the superintendent that the matter was a very serious one, because in a community such as this there should be no typhoid fever at ail. Within a period extending from September, 1909, to September, 1912, no fewer than twenty cases of typhoid fever ha-a been taken in by the local hospital. The patients had not all come from flaxmills.

The Health Department at Wellington is closely investigating the source of infection at the mill.

Says to-day’s Flew Zealand Times;—

“The Flaxmill Employees’ Union of Manawatu passed the following resolution at a meeting on Saturday:— “ That the secretary be instructed to notify the Flaxmill Owners’ Association that if they do not provide a pure water supply and adequate sanitary conveniences at their mills at Oroua and Manawatu the union will have to take the drastic step of calling the men out.

“This resolution is consequent upon a very unsatisfactory «tate of things at some of the mills. Four cases ol typhoid fever have occurred quite recently, and there is another worker ill under suspicious circumstances. A flaxmill hand named McKeowen died of the disease at Gyle’s mill, and it is stated that the District Health Officer took four weeks to reach the spot after the case was reported. “ In consequence of complaints Messrs Eomas, Culver, Dalhousie, and Robertson, M.P., visited the flaxmills some time ago, and drew up a report on the sanitary conditions at those centres of industry. Mr Robertson has asked for the production of this document in Parliament, but the Massey Government seems anxious that it shallfuotsee the light of day. Anyhow, they refuse to produce it.

“It is said that the report deals in a very trenchant manner with the sanitary conditions and the water supply at some of the mills. The water has been sent to Wellington for analysis, but the result has not been made public. The septic tanks at Palmerston North and Feilding drain into the Manawatu river, which in some cases is the only stream Irom which drinking water is obtain.‘d. Tin 1 refuse from the mil..-, also duds its way into the same streams. The men pay fifteen shillings a week for accommodation at the mills. In some cases the hygienic conditions are said to be unspeakable. “Mr G. Stove, the president of the Flaxmill Employees’ Union, has been trying to stir the politicians up to try to ukr- ;otne in-

. loot in tue matter, but i.hey are 10 busy squabbling about whether New Zealand ought to pay the wages of forty Legislative Councillors to take much notice. Mr Massey hurriedly announced in the House the other day that he intended to bring down a Shearers' and Agricultural Labourers’ Accommodation Bill, but that measure will probably be amongst the slaughtered innocents unless Parliament wakes up to the menace of the spread of typhoid in the country settlements. “Meantime the flaxmill hands are having a bad run, because not only are their health and lives imperilled, but they have to put their hands in their pockets to keep the sick mates. Typhoid is not a disease that one gets over in a hurry. Quite recently a man was laid up for four months, and the employers at his mill when approached signed a cheque tor a whole £ 2.

“Some oi the mill-owners have taken heed of warnings and, wishing to keep their men well, have improved the sanitation, and driven artesian pipes. Water is easily and inexpensively procured by this means in that neighbourhood.

“In other cases the evils of land

monopoly are in the way. There are men in the Manawatu waxing exceedingly rich out of royalties from tenants who hold their mills only from year to year. The tenants cannot, and the owners will not, drive artesian pipes, and there is no la.* 7 io make either provide proper sanitary arrangements. Under these conditions, if the typhoid spreads and the men come out on strike the only men who will not suffer permanently will be those whom it has pleased Providence to endow with large areas of land with flax planted thereon, out of which to extract royalties. If Parliament really has a few moments to spare from the consideration of “ bribery,” “corruption,” “nepotism,” “spoils,” and the contemplation of the ancient fish it would be well for them to consider the men in the typhoid belt, who are helping to make that splendid export of hemp which we hear so much about in the annual Budgets.”

It is pointed out by some who have given special consideration to this matter that the very light, sandy soil on which some of the flaxmills are situated is very liable to cause those troubles which, like typhoid, are easily spread by soil contagion. If the pollution came from higher ground than the source of the water supply on any ground from which contagion could spread thereto the loose sand is practically no protection against contamination, the disease germs travelling great distances in such soil. Probably if the men themselves were to be sufficiently educated up to a full appreciation of this feature ot the case, some of the trouble could be lessr~~d