Desiccated Industry

Typhoid Scare Kills Papuan Desiccated Industry

IN a remarkable fashion, outbreaks of typhoid have flared up in half a dozen widely separated localities in Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra and Victoria. In a way equally remarkable, ap parently bewildered medical officers have announced that desiccated coconut from Papua is more than suspect, and have ordered store stocks to be “frozen” and house holders to burn any they may have.

Australia eats a lot of desiccated coconut, most of which comes from Ceylon. One by one, the desiccated coconut mills in Papua and New Guinea have folded up, under Ceylon competition, and to-day the only suppliers are at Milne Bay (Bruce Hamilton), Kemp Welch River (Rosser Brothers) and Aroa (Harrison Ramsay), Medical officers in Melbourne found several typhoid patients who had eaten Papuan coconut; in the coconut, they found some sort of bacteria —not necessarily typhoid— which they had found in the patients; similar data was found in Canberra and later, by research workers at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

“Tropic Snow” brand of Papuan desiccated was at first the only suspect—in Victoria. However, on August 8, NSW joined Victoria and Canberra by issuing a warning to the public not to eat any brand of desiccated if its origin was not known.

Now that the general ukase has gone forth it very probably is the end of the Papua-New Guinea desiccated coconut industry. There will be some Australian prejudice against it, even if cleared of blame at the Papuan end.

Aug. 12: Victorian authorities an nounced they opened to-day one 65-lb pack of desiccated “alive with typhoid.” They believe only one typhoid carrier in Papua is respon sible, and that only “Tropic Snow” brand is affected.