THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1907. A SERIOUS BLUNDER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8872, 5 November 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1907. A SERIOUS BLUNDER.

, —: — * I On Saturday, five children suffering from scarlet fever, were conveyed from Carterton to the Fever. Hospital in Masterton in a covered passenger brake. It appears that no notification was given to the local authorities here of the intention to convey the fever patients to Masterton, and the health officer of the borough was not aware of their arrival until after the conveyance which brought them had returned to Carterton. This being so we are justified in assuming that the vehicle left here without being fumigated, the local sanitary officer being the official whose duty it is to see to the fumigation of all places and vehicles which have contained fever patients. The fault in this case cannot rest with him under the circumstances. It may or may not be that the brake was left standing for a time m some place from which some persons at least were not excluded. The point is that the local authorities should have been placed in a position to know exactly what was being done in the matter, so that steps might have been taken to guard against the possibility of the spread of the infection. The patients were sent here by vehicle b> the sanitary inspector at Carterton upon the direction of Dr. Frengley, Medical Health Officer, but the Masterton authorities, were overlooked altogether. The local inspecting officer intends to report the matter to the Borough Council. Someone has blundered, and the Health Department should enquire into the why and wherefore, as blunders of this kind are too serious to be officially ignored.