JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, WEDNESDAY, MAY 2ND, 1900

2020: DAY 39

SMH, p7

(p6)  editorial pointing out inadequacies of municipal inspection system. A new inspection system required. - "proper system of inspection" for boarding houses, hotels, "used by what may be called the floating population of a large city like this."
 

WHARF RESUMPTION (p7)
IMPORTANT CABINET MEETING

THE DARLING HARBOUR WHARFS

AN EMERGENCY SCHEME AGREED TO

AN EXPENDITURE OF ABOUT TWO MILLIONS - Mr Wise - resumptions to deal with present emergency. More complete scheme will be submitted later to reconstruct the "crooked streets on western side of George St between Margaret St and Miller's Point.
- SMH writer: "Indeed it would be far more satisfactory as well as useful and effective work, from an engineering point of view, to raze the buildings and level the country from the sea back to the centre of the city; but established cities may not be handled as rigorously..."
- SMH approving of decision: -> "There are many members of Parliament ... members of Govt... who applaud a certain idea which has found utterance and which presents to imagination the picture of a splendid unbroken sea wall, dipping down sheer into deep water and backed by lines of imposing stores, with a goods railway gliding along the broad roadway past the front doors...The present shoreline is a succession of twists and irregularities - kinks to use a colloquialism..."
- List of the wharves affected.


THE WAR

COLONIES AID TO THE EMPIRE

A MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE

SURPRISE OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD

DRAWING THE EMPIRE TOGETHER

GREAT BRITAIN'S PRESTIGE HEIGHTENED

AN INFLUENCE UNPARALLELED IN THE WORLD

SPEECH BY LORD SALISBURY

RELIEF COLUMN FOR MAFEKING


BUBONIC PLAGUE 
(p8)
CASES REPORTED YESTERDAY Two quarantined areas released
- 6 fresh cases, 2 deaths
- first two gazetted areas released.
613 rats caught & burned


CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE- Exec meeting held; Dr Graham MLA in chair
Prof Anderson Stuart asked to repeat his lecture on plague
.

LECTURE BEFORE LADIES SANITARY ASSOCIATION 
- between 50 and 60 ladies attended meeting at Town Hall under auspices of Sydney Ladies Sanitary Association. Lecture by Mrs Hassfield who had been a nurse in Bombay recently. Arrangements were being made to engage the "lecturess"to lecture to working women. Valuable hints given for keeping plague out of "the home" 

Illawarra Wharf, Sydney, 1900 - source: State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, TUESDAY, MAY 1ST, 1900

2020: DAY 38

SMH p3

BUBONIC PLAGUE

WEEKLY RETURN

CASES YESTERDAY
 - remaining under treatment - 70
; admitted during week - 27
; died " 7
;
Total to date:  156 cases
, 53 deaths
, 27 discharged, recovered. 
Total contacts: 924. 
Remaining on Saturday      260
; Cases among contacts: 5 

THE CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ‘In the evening a meeting of the members of sectional committee was held, where discussion, which lasted for some time, took place on the organisation of the sectional committees. The intended plan of operations was explained, and the question of holding public meetings in every division in and around the city was considered… too hard basket … another meeting next week

5
 Letters to Editor -
from Prevention Better than Cure
- complains of tenants who leave rubbish behind. - "
I think, Sir, the sanitary inspectors should look inside the premises for fever-producing effects as well as the yards, and by compelling the occupiers to be more cleanly in their housekeeping and persons by a plentiful application of pure water and good yellow soap they would be proving themselves public benefactors in more senses than one.-

Letters from contacts who’d spent time at the Quarantine Station: Fanny Ranken, W. Wiley, G. A. McKay, F. W. Harmer, H.L. Cordner, W. H. Cherry saying ‘the sojourn at North Head is pleasant’ and how helpful everyone is. -> "Though without doubt some of those sent as patients to quarantine must die - weakly constitutions and other factors operating to prevent success in treatment - yet it is equally true that when the patient has been secured in the early stages of the disease he has an excellent chance of recovery." 
- rooms and beds comfortable. Food good. You can get whatever you want from town. You can ring up and send free telegrams.
Letter from J. Gidley Fleming, asking why hospitalise contacts? Skeptical that it can be contracted from contact with sufferers. Quotes Ashburton-Thompson's opinion that plague virus can't remain in putrefying body.”In the case of contacts I think that the government are incurring very heavy expenses which might be avoided; as well as the great inconvenience that are being imposed upon persons who happen to be found anywhere where the outbreak occurs, by removing them from their occupation, business, and homes” - Why not just have them, under penalty, present themselves daily for the required number of days at the local hospital? …  

Kent St, Sydney, 1900 - source: State Librayr of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, MONDAY, APRIL 30TH, 1900

2020: DAY 37

SMH, p8

THE WAR 
(p7)
RELIEF OF MAFEKING
- (looks imminent …)

FEDERATION. (p7)
DELEGATES' MEMORANDUM TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
BOLD AND UNCOMPROMISING IN TONE.
STRONGLY DEPRECATES ANY AMENDMENT.
MR. DICKSON DECLINES TO SIGN.
LONDON, April 28. — The Federal Delegates, Mr. E. Barton (N.S.W.), Mr. A. Deakin (Victoria), Mr. C. C. Kingston (South Australia), and Sir P. O. Fysh (Tasmania), have presented a second memorandum to Mr. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the matter of the proposed amendments to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill. In this second memorandum the delegates still strongly deprecate any amendment of the Commonwealth Bill, since the cablegram of the Premiers in reply to the despatch of the Secretary of State does not withdraw, enlarge, or modify the original instructions given to the delegates. The memorandum is singularly bold and uncompromising in tone. It traverses the arguments of the Cabinet, and maintains the position which was established by the referendum vote. The memorandum insists that any alteration in the Bill, even through the covering clause, would be distasteful and harassing to the colonies, and that if Australians acquiesced in the amendments, it would be because they were made to choose between bowing to the changes, or to intervention, or to the danger of delay in its passing. Mr. J. R. Dickson, the representative of Queensland, wrote to his colleagues on the Federal Delegation, declining to sign the memorandum on the ground that further controversy would militate against the speedy passage of the Bill.

BUBONIC PLAGUE
, (p8)
CASES FOR 2 DAYS

GREAT INCREASE IN RATS CAPTURED
- 7 cases
- rats killed 539; 1556 for week – new record!

’The work of cleaning up is settling down into a more even groove than it was during the first weeks of quarantining.  At first, it will be remembered, the work was to some extent a " panic " one, but now that the quarantining is done for purposes of cleansing, without reference to whether cases of plague have been discovered within the areas or not, and simply because there is a danger that if the work is stopped the carriers of contagion may congregate and spread the disease among themselves, the work is being reduced to a system, and more as a precautionary measure than otherwise. ‘ 

RAT DESTRUCTION AT WOOLLAHRA

CAPITATION GRANT APPLIED FOR

Off 281 Kent St, Sydney, 1900 - source: State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, SUNDAY, APRIL 29TH, 1900

2020: DAY 36

WEEKLY REPORT
APRIL 22ND - 28TH

Register of Letters to the Colonial Secretary:
April 24th, a letter from the German Consul, asking if certain pamphlets re plague outbreak have been received.
April 26th, a letter from the C.M.O. re the Coast Hospital
April 27th, letter from A. Ross MP, with his view on quarantine laws; letter from Treasury Re Sunday Trading & bringing photographers under early trading act …

Extracts from the Minutes of the Board of Health
April 24:  Question of men employed in Quarantine  Areas leaving for their homes - fear that they would carry infection; Easter Encampment  by Army – cancelled; Communication from Botanapathic Medical Institute - offer of help from R. Beech. Rejected.
April 26: Capitation fee for rats set at 6d by Premier. (Many of the nurses at the Quarantine Station who were earning 1/9 per day would have been safer and better off financially by catching three or four rats a day); N.Z. Govt asked for Haffkine's prophylactic. Board said we've got none to spare but could send you 500 doses in an emergency when we get fresh supply. (It had ordered 10,000/mth);  Letter from Mr John Pepper complaining of management of Quarantine Station No action was thought necessary.

 NSW Govt. Gazette, 1900, Vol 2, Govt. Printer, 1900
Further extensions of scheduled areas gazetted …
Meanwhile, materials (blue-metal, sand, cement) being delivered for construction of sewerage works in Darling Harbour, Blackwattle Bay. Life goes on - bankruptcies, tenders called for, vital statistics released etc; the language of cattle-brands; notifications setting apart crown lands for homestead selections; applications for gold-mine leases, oyster farms...

Register of Deaths

Between April 22nd and April 28th, there are 10 deaths from Bubonic Plague: 5 men, one woman, a 16 year old youth, two teenage girls, one 15 and the other 13, and a 4 year old boy.  – 4 more than the previous week.

Rubbish, bottom of King St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 28TH, 1900

2020: DAY 35

SMH p10

THE WHARF RESUMPTION QUESTION, (p7)

DEPUTATION TO THE PREMIER

PROBABLY EARLY ACTION
- all in favour of resumption (deputation from Chamber of Commerce)
- 1882 - deputation from mercantile community went to then Premier, Sir John Robertson. Wharfage Improvement Ass'n formed.
Sept 1883 another deputation to Stuart Dibbs Ministry. No result.
1887 - deputation to Sir Henry Parkes. No result.
1892 - Harbour Trust Bill moved when Lyne was Works Minister but Govt changed and it lapsed.
Lyne proposed raising money thru' loans
Deputation from municipalities - on same matter
- useless to make suburbs healthy if city, where people worked, was unhealthy
- out of nearly 7 miles of wharfs, only 16,950 feet belonged to Govt.
"If we desired to develop the pastoral, mineral and manufacturing industries of the colony we could not do better than provide them with a cheap, clean, expeditious method of handling the products of their toil.


THE WAR
 (p9)
GOOD NEWS FROM MAFEKING

THE BARBARITIES OF THE BOERS


BUBONIC PLAGUE (p10)

YESTERDAY'S CASES

ARRIVAL OF YERSIN'S SERUM
- 3 new cases
- 281 rats
- Yersin's - only enough for 1/2 dose for one person! (Did they get doses wrong?)
- Ashburton-Thmpson plays with figures: 
Oporto - 60% died
Sydney - so far 34% death rate. 13 died at home and 9 in hospitals before they could be removed. Subtracting 22 from 52 (Total deaths) left 30 deaths (at Quarantine Station - mortality of 23% -> so medical care at Quarantine Station good.

A RECOVERED PATIENT

COMMENDS TREATMENT IN QUARANTINE - ‘… Although I was on the open deck I was warm enough, aud I consider the trip revived me’. (TripAdvisor, 1900)

THE CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

DEPUTATION TO PREMIER - 
"The committee had for one of its aims the desire of impressing upon individual citizens the very great responsibility resting upon them for personal effort." 
Lyne said he was glad of the help but he wasn't going to give up control of operations to any body of persons


MINING OPERATIONS AFFECTED
- complaint abt cost of chloride of lime and permanganate of potash, used in gold-saving operations in Vic. had increased because of plague. Chloride of lime £13/10/- per ton before outbreak. Now £26


LECTURE AT THE YMCA ROOMS

THE POSSIBLE PERIOD OF THE PLAGUE
- lecture by Prof Anderson Stuart
- hisory of plague
-
”…The Professor here displayed by aid of the limelight a number of photographs of various bacilli  - “… it was well understood that a knowledge of the enemy was one of the best ways to learn how to defeat him. ln this way if the British had better known what they were going to meet with in South Africa things there would have been different from what they were to-day. After all the plague was simply a battle between the man and the microbe, and his desire was that his hearers should understand the microbe and its ways, so that they might fear it less and be in a position to fight it with better weapons and to better advantage than if they did not understand it. …”

120 Sussex St, Rear - Source: State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, FRIDAY APRIL 27TH, 1900

2020: DAY 34

SMH, p6

BLACK LABOUR IN QUEENSLAND - LETTER TO THE EDITOR (p3)  “… Buildings, road work, bridges, railway works, and every description of heavy graft, whore bone and sinew are required, are almost invariably carried out by white men, and when coloured labour is employed it is on grounds of economy, not because white men are incapable….”

BUBONIC PLAGUE
 (p6)
THE CAPITATION BONUS FOR RATS
 - capitation fee raised threefold - from tuppence to sixpence.per rat delivered to the rat incinerator. [Note: At the time, nurses working in the Quarantine Station were paid one shilling & ninepence a day – less than the capitation fee on 4 rats ]
NEW CASES YESTERDAY
- 3 cases - one was too ill to be moved.

MINISTERIAL INSPECTION OF THE WHARFS

PROPOSED RESUMPTION OF THE FERRY SERVICE

PREMISES TO BE REPAIRED AND CLEANED


THE CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

ADOPTION OF EXEC'S REPORT

A FULL PROGRAMME
- (A bureaucratic mapping) proposal - to divide up city into 11 divisions, same as electoral boundaries; 2. to call for 5 volunteers within divisions whose job  is to call meetings etc and to appoint local committees. Complaints referred to local committees sitting with general committee. Each committee to have one male and one female inspector at least, empowered to enforce Health Act.
 … That the Water and Sewerage Board be requested to fix one night on which the whole sewerage system of the metropolitan area be filled with sulphur fumes, and that a big public and private effort be made on that night to kill rats…  That inoculated men be appointed to each municipality to act under orders of the Mayor or local committee …
Question of fleas - an onslaught had been made on rats, but what about fleas (which were being linked with transmission) Dr Tidswell said he'd address the General Committee on the plague and its causes. "The matter of the flea" would be included.
" A member of the committee said he noticed there were a few fleas in the room."


Interior, 120 Sussex St, Sydney - Source; State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, THURSDAY APRIL 26TH, 1900

2020: DAY 33

SMH, p8

Note: Overall, I’m focusing on the Bubonic Plague stories in this account, but, given the time of the year - and the time of the planet - it’s worth mentioning other major stories covered each day. - such as the syndicated and extensive reporting on the Boer War, taking four months to reach readers. Navigate around the Trove SMH links if you want to read more …

AT LADYSMITH.: BY OUR SPECIAL WAR CORRESPONDENT, D. A. MACDONALD. (p4)
CHRISTMAS TIME.
FACETIOUS BOERS.
PLUM PUDDING INSIDE A SHELL.
AN AUDACIOUS VEDETTE.
BOERS' CAMPING PLACE.
THE NAVALS' HURRICANE.
FOUR SHOTS IN TWENTY SECONDS.
THOSE WHO DIE IN BATTLE.
PITIFUL PATHOS.
"LIVE-DEAD" BOERS.
HOSPITALS SANS COMFORTS.
PATIENTS DYING FROM STARVATION.
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ]XIII
LADYSMITH, New Year’s Day

QUEEN VICTORIA CONSUMPTIVES HOME
- (p4)
Open-air treatment of consumption
- exec committee meeting
Mrs Langer, Miss Dibbs, Miss Harris, Messrs R. Teese, F. Grimley, & H. Levy (Hon Treasurer) Drs C Purser (hon sec) Sydney Jones & Camac Wilkinson
- Jones read report of o/s trip (left Sydney Jan 1898!) on fact-finding tour to look at sanatorium or open-air treatment of consumptives. This system had been in operation for 40 yrs in Germany but not done in G.B. where 60,000 die annually; 4000 in Oz; "One-seventh of mankind die of tuberculosis" and a great many more are affected by it, three-quarters recovering. (post-mortem evidence of damaged lungs in cases of death from other causes)
- "pure air" "mephitic vapour" dietetics"
- "Mental rest is also essential ... Reading exciting books, much talking and loud laughter are therefore forbidden."
- soil should be dry and well-drained. Air dry and light. Fresh air, sunshine, good food.


BUBONIC PLAGUE - p8 - (308 words)
YESTERDAY'S CASES - 5 cases, 2 deaths
 279 rats caught.

A CHAT WITH A RELEASED PATIENT

HIS OPINIONS ON THE QUARANTINE STATION
- - Mr E.C. Bevan - had no complaints of trip to Quarantine Station


CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

MEETING OF EXEC

.RATCATCHING AT DRUMMOYNE


Bradley’s cottages, off Sussex St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, WEDNESDAY APRIL 25TH, 1900

2020: DAY 32

SMH, p10

NOTE: Lest we forget … as it is 1900. today is not ANZAC Day - this is still in the future.. The Boer War is happening now – but no Australians will die there, because there ARE no (white) Australians at this time: only New South Welshmen, Victorians etc.

RESUMPTION OF HARBOUR FORESHORES
 (p5)
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR LYN
E
IMMEDIATE RESUMPTION AT DARLING HARBOUR

COMMENCEMENT OF A GENERAL SCHEME

SOME ASPECTS OF THE PLAGUE
- deputation urging resumption provided opportunity for announcement.
- deputation members: Haynes, MLA (head) Wilks, Law, Smith, JCL Fitzpatrick, Carroll, Bryce.
(89 out of 125 members signed petition in favour of resumption)

”We, the undersigned members of the Legislative Assembly, desire to urge upon you the expediency of at once resuming the whole of the wharf property lying between the Government property at Darling Hirbour and that at the Circular Quay.  We urge this action for the twofold reasons that it is advisable that the Government should own this property , and that radical limprovements should be effected in this quarter at once as the only guarantee against the present disastrous plague getting a permanent hold on Sydney, to the great loss of life and ruin of our commercial interests. “

BUBONIC PLAGUE (p10)

ONE CASE YESTERDAY


NEW QUARANTINED AREAS PROCLAIMED


THE CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE

ITS PLAN OF OPERATIONS 
SOME SUGGESTIONS ASKED FOR
- members of committee: Messrs Pulsford (MLC) Archer, Wilks (MLA) Dr G. O'Neill, Aldermen T. Hughes & Waterhouse, Messrs G Lewis, JD Fitzgerald, G. Wallace, HE Farmer, Atlee Hunt, WA Notting, PC Mitchell, Mesdames Gibson, Hawley Wilson & Courtenay Smith
- meeting adjourned to 8 Thurs night.

Letter from Stockman suggesting that plague patients should be bled, since this works in cattle for blackleg and quarter evil and the symptoms are similar - sudden onset, high temp.
 - “As soon as a cattle owner who knows his business discovers a case of blackleg the first thing he runs for is the lance. Plague symptoms, as far as I can learn, are very similar to those in cattle …”

Letter - build QS at South Head to save the sea trip


DISAPPEARING SYDNEY – TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD - Letter from G. Sydney Jones, Hon Sec. Institute of Architects
 - Institute has been collecting prints and photographs as record for archeologists and historians of future. Refers to leader in SMH on Sat 21st calling for pictorial record to be kept of changes taking place in Sydney - railway extension, north shore bridge, Darling Harbour.

Off Druitt St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW