THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1901.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 165, 20 June 1901, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1901.

THE Chief Health Officer of the colony has requested from the various local authorities, throughout the colony, a return of the approximate number of rats by them since the beginning of the campaign ; also the sums paid for those delivered for desfrnct.on. The Waimate County Council received a request to this effect yesterday, and word in to be sent that the Council had purchased no rats. People have not yet fully realised the danger they ran in regard to these harmful, unnecessary rodents, to invert a well-known phrase. That the plague did actually gain a footing in our colony is now undoubted and the one death might have been followed by hundreds or thousands had not preventive measures been so promptly taken. The ports of the various colonies co-operated heartily with New

Zealand, otherwise onr precautio is would have availed little. In the South African and Australian ports the most vigorous precautions were *taken to present rats, who are the chief culprits in the dissemination of the disease, from getting on board vessels or leaving them. To effect tliis tin discs were placed on the ropes and any attempt to cross this barrier was futile. All cargoes from infected ports were fumigated and the quarantine rules strictly enforced. To these precautions and these alone, we owe immunity from a scourge of whose full horrors we only know by hearsay. That, in this land at all events, our knowledge may be no more intimate is everyone’s desire, and the Health Dep. r ment’s labours in this respect should not go unacknowledged. We hope that the next time fche disease makes its periodical visit the colony may escape as lightly as it has done on this occasion.