THE SMALL-POX "SCARE."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 14 July 1913, Page 4

THE SMALL-POX "SCARE."

NO NEED FOR ALARM IN WAIRARAPA. PRECAUTIONS"BY DEPARTMENT,. In consequence of the outbreak of a disease among the Natives in tho North, the Health Department is taking extraordinary, precautions', so that public anxiety .in the ■ matter may be allayed. v .7.1, ■■". AH mails are being fumigated, an« Natives from the affected districts ia the"North, are not to be allowed to travel unless they have a meical certificate. In conversation with an Age re?» Jorter yesterday the Chief Healthl nspector for the Wairarapa (Mr; Cairns) stated that no case resembling either chicken-pox or small-pox had been reported among *Natives or Europeans of the Wairarapa. A skia disease known as "Maori itch" had! been in existence among the Natives for years, but this was not serious. Mr Cairns stated that he had arranged with the railway authorities amr leading Natives to be advised pi any Natives coming to the district from the north, so that they might be located at any time. So far, .according to Mr Cairns, there is not the slightest ground for apprehension so far as the Wairarapa h con* cerned. The Health Department has sent 200 tubes of calf lymph to the Wairarapa, for use by the vaccination officers, but ft is not considered probable # that there will be any rush fo? vaccination. Mr William loms, the .well-knowa Native interpreter, who moves freely among the Natives of the Wairarapa; pooh-poohs the idea that any .of tha Natives are suffering from a diseasa akin to small-pox, He states that, so far as he can discover, the whole of the Natives in the district are in a fairly healthy condition. He does not regard "Maori itch" as at all/ serious. In Wellington, where there is at floating population, a • good deal of anxiety is necessarily felt. The Health Department has forbidden any- person, to travel to the' South island unless he can show evidence of having been successfully vaccinated, and on Saturday Ministers of the Crown and members of Parlia> ment were innoculated with , calf lymph. * It may be mentioned that tha whole of thjLmedical men in. Masterton are vaccination officers, and that vaccination ia performed free to the public. ' .