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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1023, 14 January 1882, Page 2

Of course there is no male or female adult in this district afraid of catching the smallpox. We are fortified in that view of the subject from the simple fact that during the many mouths past, while Dr. Pollen has been almost in daily attendance at the place appointed for vaccinating only three grown-up persons have availed themselves ef the precautionary measures placed at their disposal as a preventive against the contagious disease. It “cometh not,” said Mariana in Tennyson’s “ Moated Grange ;” it “cometh not,” she said. And that is precisely about the same view the New Zealand people in many parts of the Colony take of the smallpox. It is certainly to a considerable degree the view taken by a number of persons in this district. We are in a position to state that, although a number of infants have undergone the operation, there are still many more who have not yet been performed upon. Now that the last 'Frisco mail steamer, the Zealandia, has inter alia., brought the smallpox to our shores, possibly a vigorous attempt will be made at “locking the stable-door,” and it is to be hoped that on this occasion it will not be “ after the steed is .stolen.” From the telegrams published in our last issue, it would appear as if the Auckland papers blamed the Government for its inattention to the representations made by the Posta l authorities there with respect to the improper fumigating appliances at hand. That may be. Much blundering was occasioned in Sydney when the disease broke out last year. So much so that the whole medical profession became seared because the first one of their

brethren, who attended a smallpox patient,.was taken away from the lucrative practice of his profession and popped into “quarantine.” There was no real necessity for this, because medical men as a rule take such precaution as is necessary. In America and Europe smallpox is in many places a chronic disease, but the medical officers are permitted to attend their patients in the ordinary way. We wonder at the Government- neglecting to take the proper steps for providing for the fumigation of the mails. The question generally came up on several occasions before the House last Session. and at all times the Government appeared most anxious to adopt strong preventive measures. Last month the consternation in regard to the smallpox in Sydney was revived. A panic is stated to have taken place in the neighborhood of Camperdown, where there were many persons who “ packed up their tents like the Arabs and had silently gone away.”