PLAGUE IN AUCKLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3241, 10 June 1911, Page 5

PLAGUE IN AUCKLAND.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ITS SPREAD. ' L ARE THEY ADEQUATE ? IFEB PRESS ASSOCIATION..! WELLINGTON. June 9. The Hon. George Fowlds, Minister of Public Health, has sent the following reply to Mr. T. E. Taylor, Mayor of Christchurch, who suggested that the precaution taken by the Health Department to protect other parts of New Zealand from the spread of. the Auckland plague outbreak ore inadequate. “In reply to your telegram of yesterday I am advised by the Chief Health Officer that lie cannot recommend further precautions against plague-infect-ed rats landing at Lyttelton and other ports without a general dislocation of the commerce of the Dominion, which the conditions at Auckland do not at present warrant. Some time ago district health officers were instructed to be on the lookout for plague-infected rats, and drastic rat regulations have been issued, empowering them to take special action where rats are founci .on the premises. The Harbor Board authorities are on the alert, and are destroying rats. In response to a departmental circular to other local authorities it would appear that they, too, are giving effect to the. suggestions of the department.