THE CARDINAL'S TOUR Why It Has Been Postponed

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 2 July 1903, Page 3

THE CARDINAL'S TOUR Why It Has Been Postponed

For some time past there has been an epidemic of measles among the Fijian natives, which has given reason for great anxiety, as the last epidemic of the kind accounted for the loss of 40,000 lives. It was a melancholy and warning instance of the deadly effect of new epidemics when introduced into the favorable medium of native races among whom such scourges were unknown till the advent of the white man. The history oi the red man in the United States and Canada also lurnishes abundant instances — some of them of very re^ cent date— of the decimation or extinction of whole tribes by epidemics of measles. The authorities in the various: groups of Western Pacific islands find it, therefore, necessary to take practically the same precautions to preserve the native races under their care from the contagion of measles as our governments do to stave off small-pox or cholera or bubonic plague. All this interferes' co serious:y with the carrying out of the published programme that it has been decided to postpone it until conditions are more favorable. The following letter from Cardinal Moran to Mr. Spruson, the active and onergelic secretary of the undertaking, explains itself :— St. Mary's Cathedral, .. , -. _, Sydney, 16th June, 1903. My dear Mr. Spruson, The news which came to hand on yesterday regarding the spread of the measles epidemic in Fiji must seriously interfere with the proposed excursion to the Islands. lam informed that in consequence of the epidemic strict quarantine regulations are being enforced in some of the groups, and that passengers from Fiji are not allowed to land at the Tongan islands or in the New Hebrides or in New Caledonia. Were it a question only of myself and the clergy who had arranged to accompany me, we wo<uld not for a moment hesitate to faice the difficulties that may thus arise ; but when there is a question of some 250 friends from all parts oi Australia and New Zealand, who have been Communicating with you in regard to the projected excursion, a serious responsibility is involved, for which I confess I am not quite prepared. I fear very much that the quarantine regulations in the various groups of islands would entail a considerable amount of unpleasantness on the tourists, and would involve the whole excursion in manifold inconveniences for which it would not be possible to devise a remedy. This, I know, will be a disappointment to you and those associated with you who have devoted so much time to the matter, planning the whole excursion with incomparable skill and carrying out the necessary arrangements, even in regard to minutest details, with complete success. The respect, however, which is due to the interests and comfort of so large a party as is involved in the proposed excursion seems to allow no alternative save to defer the visit to the Islands to a more propitious time. Believe me to remain, Your faithful and devoted servant, PATRICK F. CARDINAL MORAN, Archbishop of Sydney.