INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

Taranaki Daily News, 28 February 1919, Page 5

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC

INCREASING DEATH ROLL IN LONDON. London, Feb. 25. The influenza deaths in London last week were Csl, compared with 100 a fortnight ago.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc. EFFECTS OF EPIDEMIC IN AUSTRALIA. Melbourne, Feb. 27. There were three additional deaths from influenza, making yesterday's total seven. At a meeting of the Board of Health one member stated that in norma 1 times tile deaths reported would not be classed as influenza. Fully 75 per cent, of the cases now rushed to the hospital were only ordinary colds, which could have been treated at home. The Minister of Public Works stated that, even if the epidemic stopped now the cost to the State would be £250,-000.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc. SEVEN DEATHS AT MELBOURNE. Received Feb. 27, 11.30 p.m. Melbourne, Feb. 27. There were seven deaths from influenza to-day.—Aus. N.Z, Cable Assoc. ONE DEATH REPORTED. Received Feb. 27, 11.30 p.m. Sydney, Feb. 27. There has been one death to-day from influenza.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc. PAYMENT OF WAGES DURING EPIDEMIC. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Feb. 27. Mr Riddle, P.M., to-day gave judgment in a case bronpht by the Inspector of Awards to decide the <|uestion a-, to the liability of employers to pay wages during the influenza epidemic. Defendant is the licensee of the Grand Ikael and the inspector asked to recover a penalty for a breach of the hotel workers' award in that he failed to pay wages to the cook and barmaids. The magistrate said that, to relieve himself from liability, defendant would require to have, on the closing of his premises, terminated the engagement of his employees in the proper manner. A breach of the award had been committed and judgment would be for plaintiff. A MASKED CITY. SOME EXTRAORDINARY SCENES. EVADING THE NFLUENZA GERM. The citizens ol Sydney were ordered into musks on February 3rd It became an offence lor any man, woman, or child to appear in public without n mask, which was delmed ollieially as any device so arranged that the wearer would breathe through at least four layers of gauze or butter muslin. The masks were to be sterilized daiiv, and were considered by tie State Healtii authorities to afford valuable protection against the influenza. Generally peaking, citizens responded cheerfully enough to the order of the Government. But it was a very hot day, and as the hour.] passed a very material section of the community, who found it necessary to move about the streets, were much less cheerful behind their masks than they were at an eailier stage of acquaintance with the innova tii.n. "There is no doubt about one effect of wearing a mask on a person whose affairs require mii'h locomotion," said the Herald. ■'lt imposes a rather trying test upon both his temper and his endurance. After an hour or so there is en overwhelming sense of partial suffocation, n feeling of intense heat, and an almost unconquerable yearning for surreptitious inhalations of atmosplieree without the intervention of gauzt, 'That the feeling of inconvenience will in due course be conquered r.',ay be regarded as reasonably certain. Men and women who at the dictation of vanity have accustomed themselves to wearing high collars and tight-fitting boots on -•.'.'miner dn.vs arc not likely to be defeated by so simple a thing aB A mask, 'in the I'iise of men engaged in laborious occupations, however, the position may be different. To them—at any to who work in the open—the mask becomes an insupportable torment. A gang of those brawny citizens who lift up sections of the tramway track and put down new rails were to be observed working with masks on. But, in each case the mask dangled gracefully from one of the wearer's sunburnt ears by a single loop of tape. "Of course there were masks of almost every conceivable size and shape on view. There was the mask thn» looked like a pin-cushion—the mask that fitted closely to the face nnd the mask that merely reposed on the countenance—(lie ma.sk cunningly cut nwar to fit across the upper lip like pince-nez over the bridge of the nose—the mask of severe design, and the mask having a certain pertness. There were masks that suggested the diminutive bird-cage —masks flat, convex, round, and square. One mask which looked fairly comfortable was built to resemble a bucket Another occasionally encountered was of the design implying pbgiarisation of a garden watering-ran- All this variation imparted a not unpleasing novcTiy to the parade along the footpaths in the moTe crowded localities It might have been observed that in the open spades in nnd around the city and in the suhur'>s many people wore these masks in their noekets than in the position advised by the medical advisers of the Minister of Health. "Practically every woman seen in the c!tv streets had n made on—and, not unnaturally, experiments in camouflage were varied and numerous. Efforts to harmonise the mask with the color si'h"iucs of dress and hat were made with apparent satisfaction at the results. There wore mauve masks, pink masks, and black masks. Masks were concealed, partially and otherwise, beneath veils suspended from hats or worn tied ncross the fiice iust under the eyaa. Tn these cases, whenever the achievement" in fashion may have been tliev were certainly registered at tlx cost, of lost identity. "Tin Minister of Health regarded as excellent a suggestion that bathers should not he allowed to loiter on the beaches without their masks, and hoped that councils would co-operate with the Department Iby seeing that there wna a proper observance of he Government's regulation." There wera many prosecutions for failures to wear masks. The first offenders were fined Ids, in default three dnys' inwrisonment. The funnv side of the scheme does not appear to have I impressed Sydney, which watched the luerouih ot influenza vwry oarouity.