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South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882.

At length, after a good deal of anxious care in making* preparations for the reception of the dreaded stranger from Australia, we have flDjall-pox brought to our doois from a’nother quarter. If we consider for a rnoment. the consternation which,was •excited in this colony when it was first intimated that the disease had appeared in Sydney, and : the fussy haste with which preventive measures were taken or ordered from one end of New Zealand to the other, we shall congratulate ourselves that the“s<Sare” had worn itself out before the arrival of the mail steamer Zcalandia on Tuesday, with small-pox patients on board. Judging from the effect produced by the report of the outbreak in a distant colony, the sudden arrival of a ship carrying the justly dreaded disease would have turned the country upside down. People would have started, horrified, for the bush, and the mountains, and have avoided each other with the greatest watchfulness, for. fear of receiving infection. But the scare has died out, the nine days allotted for the life of a wonder have elapsed, and the most prominent feeling excited by the actual arrival of specimens of the disease in Auckland is one of annoyance that Government have not seen fit to provide the postal authorities there with a “ smokehouse,” in order that the mails may reach their destination a day or two sooner.

We are not at all inclined to underrate the deadly character of small-ppx, nor the importance of taking such preventive measures as medical science advises ; but we do not think that that is the only disease to be dreaded. Tire “ mail news ” brought by the Zealaadia, and telegraphed over the colony, informed us that there is an epidemic of small-pox in Chicago ; but it also informed us that two thousand lives were lost by diphtheria in Nova Scotia last year. An epidemic of small-pox could scarcely beat that, n.ow-a-days. We have some very effective diseases acclimatised

amongst ourselves now, and it would be prudent to reserve a little of our dread of epidemics for these. Dysentery, typhoid and scarlet fevers are not unknown, even within a hundred miles of this place, and it would seem to accord as well with common sense to pay some attention to the causes and means of preventing the spread of these, as to be making preparations for a disease not yet introduced.

When a law is more honored in the breach than' the observance,” as is generally the case with the law relating to the closing of public houses on Sundays, it should be insisted on that an “ informer” should find no part to play in any attempt to enforce it. Everyone knows that most public houses are more or less open fur the sale of liquors on Sundays ; the public, or a section of the public, will have it so, and the licensee is in nine cases out of ten not sufficiently his own master to be able to resist their demands. The law is strict, however, in its letter, and that fact affords an instrument that may be used for ulterior motives, and it is occasionally so used. The licensee of a country hotel was yesterday charged with supplying liquor on two separate Sundays, and the charges being proved, he was fined £2 in each case. He was punished, it may be said, not for breaking the law, for that is broken in alldirections every Sunday, but because he was informed against. It is acknowledged that the house is a well-conducted one ; the police speak well of its general management; yet a pitiful fellow has it in his power to set a law in operation against the holder of the license, and cause him to be severely mulcted for doing what nineteen out of twenty of his class do, and cannot well avoid doing. Seeing that the law is in the state it is, prosecutions ought not to be instituted on the complaint of any one person, unless that person be an officer of police.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SCANT18820112.2.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2747, 12 January 1882, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
678

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2747, 12 January 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2747, 12 January 1882, Page 2

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