The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1881.
It is now a well established fact that small pox is spreading in Sydney, and yet a day or so ago the Government relaxed the regulations in Wellington in the case of the steamer Wakatipu, only five days from that port. So strict did the Govern ment intend to be a short time ago, that not even in . the case of the Detached Squadron, would any relaxation of the quarantine regulations be allowed, and now, without any cause, a steamer with mails and passengers is allowed to pratique. The very fact of the squadron having to go into quarantine probably had more to do wiih the alteration of programme, and the refusal to visit Auckland than anything else, a fact that the Auckland people seem to have overlooked. The Government were commended for the promptitude displayed in issuing regulations and insistiug upon every necessary measure being taken to ward off from the inhabitants of this colony, such a disease as small pox, but so far as is known of the caseof the steamer Wakatipu, the Colonial Secretary appears deserving of censure for allowing any relaxation of the regulations already in force. The Post of Wei. lingtou says very forceably :—lf there was any danger before of small pox being introduced here, the danger is materially greater now that the disease has seriously spread in Sydney, having appeared in different part of the city and caused several deaths. No ill result may follow from dispensing with quarantine in the case of the s.s. Wakaapu yesterday, but all the risk has been run that would accrue from admitting a vessel from an infected place. The idea that the summary vacei* nation to which everybody on bgard were i compulsory subjected, and the fumigation undergone by the mails can afford any i ;-eal protection against the introduction of : the dreaded disease is palpably absurd. If the p&fisejjgers brought with them any germs of infeefciaq, those would not be destroyed by vaccinatioe. Toe fumigation of the mails would be no protective measure unless the passengers, their clofches j and lu£ga»3, and the cargo also, underwent the similar process. Even then we doubt the efficiency of the supposed pro_ tection. Of course quarantine j.g alway s troublesome and inconvenient, and £P impediment to trade, and a restriction to personal liberty { but it is admittedly necessary. We can see no valid reason why its protective benefit should have been so precipitately sacrificed. It is all very well for Mr McLean to say that he made no application in regard to the Wakatipu. Whether he did po or not it is uotoriou*
that the most strenuous efforts have been made by the Union Company to obtaiu a relaxation of the quarantine regulations, and they hare got it. Ifc|seems to us that the Government have acted in this matter with some rashness and want of judgment as well as great inconsistency. They have practically abolished quarantine in respect to the disease now becoming epidemic in Sydney. Experience alone can show whether this is or is not a fatal mistake.
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Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3941, 16 August 1881, Page 2
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524The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1881. Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3941, 16 August 1881, Page 2
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