PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
༄། ·། ། །།
Reference :-
CO. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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4. The danger in Fiji will arise when a case occurs on board a vessel before arrival, and when there is difficulty in deciding whether the passengers and crew have served their full period of incubation, and are thereby free from danger to the Colony, since the incubation period is put at four (4) to five (5) days (Manson), and may extend even to 30 days, and the voyage fom Panama to Fiji would not be more than fourteen (14) days, there must always be some danger that there will be an infected passenger landed. Once he lands in Fiji the mischief is done.
5. The consideration of the prophylactic treatment by mosquito extermination is entirely one of expense. The natural formation of the town of Suva, with its numerous small water-courses and gullies, lends itself in the highest degree to the breeding of mosquitoes, and without a permanent mosquito brigade of a very con- siderable size little could be done to improve the conditions that exist.
6. A beginning has been made by the granting of a small gang of prisoners who work with an overseer, under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health. Their work, for three years past, has been the improvement of existing water-courses and drains, and the work that has been done has been good and useful, but it has been almost infinitesimal when compared with what is necessary in the face of this danger.
7. For the making permanent of these improved water-courses it was ordered by the late Governor (Sir Henry May) that a sum of money, £500, should be placed on the Estimates, in order that the water-ways might be made more permanent by lime cementing, and so the constant repairs to them might be obviated; it was not, however, found possible to provide for the service, and the matter was, for the time, put aside.
8. If improvement is to be made, and the danger to the Colony combated, I regard it as essential that money should be spent on an organised mosquito brigade, to treat the town of Suva in the same way as other mosquito-infected towns have been treated in other tropical countries; nothing can be done without expenditure on some considerable scale on the personnel of the mosquito brigade, and also on the permanent improvements necessary to small drains and water-courses.
9. Ross, in his Report on the Prevention of Malaria in Mauritius (1908), gives, in detail, suggestions for the formation of anti-mosquito brigades, and there estimated the total annual cost to the whole Island, at £9,000, or 12 per cent, of the total revenue. It could not be suggested that such work could be at present done in Fiji, the cost would be enormous, but a beginning might be made in the ports of entry of the Colony, and it is to be recommended that it should be made at an early date.
10. The work to be done would consist of :-
(1) Systematic canalisation of existing water-courses, making them perma- nent, and keeping them clear. This would be a continuation of the work now being done by the sanitary gang of ten prisoners, which works under a European Warder, under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health.
(2) Systematic visitation of all premises and back-yards, with a view to clearing away empty tins, inspection of drain-pipes and gutters, inspection of yards for water-holes, and filling of these.
(3) Provision of means to remove all such things as empty tins, barrels, &c. (4) Provision by all houses of effectual drainage for rain-water, i.e., to carry
it off to the street drains.
(5) Improvement of street drains, which are at present of the worst
description.
(6) Dealing with surplus vegetation.
(7) Filling in swampy and low-lying areas in the towns.
11. Some of the work noted in paragraph 10 could, no doubt, be done by the Municipal Council if it were in a position to expend money-it does not appear to be so at present.
12. Ross's report for Mauritius gives as an estimate of cost 0.36 rupees per head of the population. In Suva, Levuka, and Lautoka, I presume that the expendi- ture would be met in part, at any rate, by a special levy per caput.
Medical Department,
Suva, Fiji. November 13th, 1913.
G. W. A. LYNCH,
Chief Medical Officer.
171
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No. 64.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 3rd January, 1914.)
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Ambassador, Washington, No. 391, Commercial, dated December 20th, respecting the distribution of mosquitoes in the United States.
Reference to previous correspondence: Letter from Foreign Office, December 4.* Foreign Office,
January 2nd, 1914.
(Commercial. No. 391.)
Enclosure in No. 64.
British Embassy, Washington,
SIR,
December 20, 1913. Wirn reference to your despatch, No. 158, Commercial, of August 29th last, respecting certain information to be obtained from the United States Government as to the distribution of Stegomyia fasciata in Eastern ports, for the use of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, I have the honour to enclose herewith a letter from the Secretary of War to the State Department forwarding a copy of a letter of the Acting Chief Sanitary Officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission dealing with this subject. I shall be glad to obtain copies of any of the volumes mentioned in this letter if the Imperial Bureau of Entomology desires it.
Acting upon the suggestion in the third paragraph a member of this Embassy called upon Dr. Howard at the Bureau of Entomology, who gave him the enclosed account of captures of Stegomyia fasciata during recent years. As to sending to the Imperial Bureau collections of mosquitoes Dr. Howard regretted that at present he was unable to do so, the specimens in his possession being wanted for a monograph upon this subject now being prepared, but, this work finished, he would be pleased to release any specimens which might be useful to the Imperial Bureau.
Dr. Howard further said that the Philippine Islands were not in his province, and he suggested that the Bureau might write for information upon this subject to the Department of Science, Manila.
I have, &c.,
The Right Honourable
SIR,
Sir Edward Grey, Bart., K.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
COLVILLE BARCLAY.
War Department, Washington,
November 17, 1913.
REFERRING to your letter of October 10th last, in which you enclosed a copy of a note from the British Ambassador regarding the desire of His Majesty's Government to secure additional information concerning sanitation in the Canal Zone, and to my acknowledgment dated October 14th, in which you were informed that your letter, with its enclosures, was being forwarded to the Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission on the Isthmus, I beg to advise that a letter has been received from Colonel Goethals, dated November 6th, in which he states that he has taken this matter up with the Department of Sanitation on the Isthmus, and he submits a copy of a self-explanatory report from the Acting Chief Sanitary Officer, dated November 1st, a copy of which report is enclosed
• No. 57.