2020: DAY 8
The Sydney Morning Herald is not published on Sundays, so once a week, on each Sunday in 1900, I’ll draw random notes from other documents, such as the Register of Letters to the Colonial Secretary, the Government Gazette, the Register of Deaths from Bubonic Plague etc to produce a kind of weekly report. There are of course no records of Legislative Assembly debates before June 1900 – because the Fourth Session of the 18th Colonial Parliament was prorogued and did not sit between December 23rd, 1899 and June 12th, 1900: so the colony was under Executive Rule in this period (the state of exception)
Register of Letters to the Colonial Secretary: lots of letters volunteering for service in South Africa, lots about staffing and admin for the Coast Hospital (at Little Bay, established to deal with a smallpox outbreak in 1881, precursor to Prince Henry Hospital) - extra nurses required, extra drivers, extra doctors, extra chaplains. A capitation fee is set for rats - and rat catching becomes quite lucrative (ratcatchers will receive higher wages than nurses. )
Government Gazette:
Mostly proclamations resuming parts of the city for cleansing and fumigation operations and demolitions. Vast inner-city areas are resumed by government proclamation right through March, April, May, June and into July, although rescission of the proclamations after cleansing begins from late April.
Fri 23 Mar. No. 255, p2379 - Proclamation - no vessel which has touched at Port Jackson after this date shall "make fast to any wharf or to the shore" and no person or article shall be removed without production of Board of Health certificate, saying that the vessel has been fumigated. Without certificate, vessel will be quarantined.
Register of Deaths
In March 1900, 15 deaths from the outbreak are recorded, six in the week between March 25th and April 1st. In April and May 1900 there will be considerably more cases.
279 Kent St, Sydney, Source: State Library of NSW