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6
During the year, 93 cases of infectious diseases were
notified :—
Scarlet Fever 82
Diptheria 11
In the early part of the year fever made its appearance
amongst the children attending the Board Schools, and when
some half dozen cases had been notified the Schools were
closed for a period of three weeks. This had the effect of
checking the spread of the disease for a time, but on the
Schools being re-opened the disease steadily advanced again.
The Schools were not closed again until the Christmas
holidays, the Sanitary Authority apparently fearing lest the
grant to School Board should be jeopardised thereby.
The source of the outbreak was doubtless due to some
children suffering from the disease—though thought to be
suffering only from a cold—being allowed to attend School.
There was nothing else common to all the cases, with very
few exceptions, except that the patients had attended School.
The disease was on the whole of a mild character, and only
three deaths were attributable to it, two directly, and one
indirectly.
It appears to me that there is a serious defect in
Education Act. For whilst parents are bound under penalty
to send their children to School, no steps are taken to insure
that the children shall be in good health, and free from
infection. Hence it happens that a child may be suffering
from a slight attack of Scarlet Fever or Diptheria, which the
parents imagine to be, and treat as a cold—they being in all