PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1922, Page 6

PLAGUE PRECAUTIONS.

NOT TO BE RELAXED. “RISKS STILL VERY REAL” Complaints have recently been received from certain quarters that the New Zealand quarantine regulations, and more particularly the provisUons inquiring ships to be breasted at least 1 ■four feet off the wharves, are irksome and unnecessary. Capital has been made of the fact that the Australian quarantine authorities impose no such restriction as this last, but allow ships from plague-infected ports to lie right ! alongside the wharf. The Minister for Health (the Hon. I C. J. Parr), when interviewed upon the subject by a Wellington Times representative,* was emphatic in stating that the regulations are not to be relaxed. He pointed out that these follow closely the Commonwealth regulations, with the exception above quoted. “Justification for the additional measure imposed in New Zealand is found (said the Minister) in the fact that both the Ministry for Health, England, and the Panama* Canal Zone Executive Office have recently given it as their considered opinion that ships from plague-infected ports should not be al-' lowed to come right alongside the wharves, but should be breasted off a short distance. “It will be admitted that the New Zealand quarantine regulations have undoubtedly served their purpose, and have kept plague out of the Dominion. Although for the time being the disease is in abeyance on the other side, it has not disappeared. The risks to New Zealand are still very real, and will re- | main till a period of some six months ;• has elapsed from the discovery of the Jast. in Auftttftlin.” _