New Caledonia's Plague
p. 55 · Read in the full issue
Outbreak
ALL restrictions imposed in New Cale donia owing to a plague outbreak in March have now been removed.
A little native girl, on a mission plan tation in a village in the south of New Caledonia, picked up a dead rat and threw it at her companions. Soon after wards these children developed bubonic plague, and six of them died.
As soon as the disease was identified the village was isolated and the inhabi tants vaccinated. Supplies of vaccine, sufficient for 750 persons, were sent from New Zealand by flying-boat, but it was not required. The outbreak was soon controlled and cleaned up.
There had not been a serious plague outbreak in this Colony since 1912, when it lasted for 84 days and caused 37 deaths. This recent incident shows that the dreaded disease is always waiting somewhere, ready to strike through its common host (the rat) when the oppor tunity offers.
Mr. A. C. Rentoul, RM at Misima Island, Papua, recently returned to Papua after furlough in Australia, with Mrs.
Rentoul. He is stationed temporarily at Port Moresby, while the Commissioner of Lands is on furlough.