JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, FRIDAY MAY 18TH, 1900

2020: DAY 55

SMH, P6

293 Kent St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

p5 - LATE EDITION. / HERALD OFFICE, 7.15 a.m. / THE WAR. / REPORT OF THE RELIEF OF MAFEKING /ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, / CAPTURE OF GENERAL ELOFF / LONDON, May 17.
Large crowds are at the Mansion House awaiting news confirming the reported relief of Mafeking. There is intense excitement. Lord Salisbury read a fresh cablegram announcing the relief in the House of Lords, but stated that the news was unofficial. The Boors have lately increased the number of the investing army to give combat to the relieving column, which is formed of picked men from the Imperial Light Horse, Roberts's Horse, Briar shiili's Horse, and- the Imperia "Volunteers. It is reported from Delagoa Bay that Colonel Baden-powell captured General Eloff (grandson of President Kruger) and 90 prisoners in the desperate fight which took place at Mafeking on Saturday.

p6 - WHEN MAFEKING IS RELIEVED A PUBLIC HOLIDAY
AT THE THEATRES, SCENES OF ENTHUSIASM

BUBONIC PLAGUE
 / QUARANTINED AREAS RELEASED / WORK ON THE WHARFS


THE QUARANTINE OF “CONTACTS”
 / DEPUTATION OF MEDICAL MEN
 / RELAXATION ASKED FOR AND CONSIDERATION PROMISED
- "... if a patient were taken from a building where dirt abounded and the people were huddled together, all those in contact with him should be sent to quarantine. If...a patient were taken from a well-kept house, thoroughly healthy in every respect, they could not see the necessity for quarantining those who happened to reside in the same house as the patient."


CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE / SECOND PROGRESS REPORT
 / SOME INTERESTING DETAILS
- Exec met every day; abt 20 turned up. 34 complaints of nuisances reported to Board of Health, 46 to City Council. 12 top Water Board. 14 were "otherwise dealt with" Total 106 - 76 previous week.
 ” instructions have been issued to all conductors that rats must not to be permitted to be carried in the trams” 
- Establishment of suburban receiving depots as result of committee pressure
- criticism of people who set up "private hospitals" without qualifications
- connection b/w plague and insanitary stables made
- Ref to plague in Calcutta in March: 
Over 3 days: Day 1, 148 cases, 133 deaths; Day 2, 119 cases, 112 deaths; Day 3, 117 cases, 109 deaths.
”From these figures it would be realized that even if the disease had a peculiar affinity for Asiatics, where theplague once got a footingeven amongst the Europeans it was very difficult to eradicate 
- Cleanliness. Washing on Sat. night not enough; daily washing required
- Call for infectious diseases hospital

SOME EFFECTS OF THE RESUMPTION / THE GOVERNMENT AS LANDLORD

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, THURSDAY, MAY 17TH, 1900

2020: DAY 54

SMH, p8

Johns’ Cottage, off Margaret St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

p4 - SANATORIUM FOR CONSUMPTIVES AT MT KOSCIUSKO - Letter from P. Sydney Jones supporting J.H. Maiden's & Dr Angel Money's - & the SMH's sub-leader - on desirability of sanitoria at Kosciusko. Most of German and all Swiss sanitoria are above 1300ft


BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY AND SEWERAGE / VISIT TO THE BOTANY SEWAGE FARM - Sewerage news - Meeting of Water & Sewerage Board at Botany Bay works

p6 – “The date fixed by Lord Roberts for the relief of gallant little Mafeking approaches.” Set for 18th May


p8 – BUBONIC PLAGUE
- 4 new cases
- 95 now in hospital
 224 inoculations
6 54 rats


LOSS TO QUARANTINED SHOPKEEPERS / REQUEST FOR COMPENSATION


CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
 / MEETING IN DENISON DIVISION
- "There was a good attendance, including a number of ladies"
-

(Another) Letter from J. Horbury Hunt – remodelling city should be placed in hands "of a small commission of men having ripe qualifications for the masterly conception of making Sydney a great commercial city" - - ref to street widening in London and Paris


THE PLAGUE AT HONOLULU
- Impressions of Lord Henry Thynne, who'd been detained because of outbreak; not able to move around very freely, which he resented; - natives more likely to be affected - because of poor drainage.


Filler - "The mind is like a merchant's ledger; it requires to be continually posted up to the latest date."

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, WEDNESDAY, MAY 16TH, 1900

2020: DAY 53

SMH, p8

Removing floor, Huddart Parker's Wharf, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

p5: LETTER: DUTY OF CITIZENSHIP / TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD from J. Horbury Hunt
-> "Our city improvements must be of that character as shall be of the highest service to our merchants in trading on our behalf with the whole world - not forgetting that a highly commercial city can be made at the same time a beautiful place of abode for her general citizens also securing for our city labouring community homes within the city well placed for that early morning call to work. These homes must be healthy and comfortable. We should fall short of an ideal commercial city if this great factor in its commercial strength be not well provided for. Science now bids all forces to give of their best. Man must be healthy and comfortable in his abode to give the best of his force, namely labour."

Advt BUBONIC PLAGUE POSITIVELY PREVENTED by sprinkling Eckersley’s Mentholine in your underwear. All chemists 1s. Australian Drug Co., wholesale agents  

THE COMMONWEALTH BILL / PROSPECTS OF THE MEASURE / DOINGS OF THE DELEGATES. / THEY STAND BY THEIR GUNS./ (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT) LONDON, April 13

DEPUTATIONS /THE LABOUR QUESTION / UNION RATE OF WAGES

P7: FEDERATION / COMMONWEALTH BILL INTRODUCED / SPEECH BY MR. CHAMBERLAIN / AN ERA IN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY / THE MOTHERLAND AND THE COLONIES, LONDON May 14


- 1000 men employed yesterday in quarantine areas


P8: BUBONIC PLAGUE
 / YESTERDAY'S CASES
- 2 cases, 2 deaths 
652 rats
 86 inoculations; ladies and children's day, at the Town Hall for inoculation purposes.s

MANLY
 HARBOUR POLLUTION / 
A DANGER FROM SHIPS REFUSE


APPOINTMENT OF SANITARY INSPECTORS - LEICHHARDT 

PRECAUTIONS AT PADDINGTON

POSTAL REGULATIONS - no second-hand clothes to Vic. from NSW

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, TUESDAY, MAY 15TH, 1900

2020: DAY 52

SMH, p6

Huddart Parker’s Wharf, Sydney 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

Editorial on reform of City Council 
- doesn't seem to be against property franchise; just wants less apathetic ratepayers.
- Editorial on advantage of setting up a "high-level sanitorium for consumptive patients" subsidised by Govt because of high costs, at Mt Kosciusko - > "The climate is healthy and bracing, the atmosphere is pure, and there is plenty of eucalyptus."
- State has seen that milk and meat for human consumption is good and has improved sanitation. 

P3 AGITATION FOR INCREASED WAGES. / BROKEN HILL, Monday
The machine men working in the various mines along the line consider themselves underpaid at 9s per shift, and are endeavouring to get the price raised at least 1s. The matter originated at th British mine and a meeting was held last Sunday week to ventilate the question … As many o the machine men were not members of the AMA, it was decided that the meeting recommend all men to join the association …

 P5 VICTORIA ANTI-SWEATING LEAGUE, MELBOURNE, Monday
At the sitting of the Anti-Sweating League today large numbers of oomplaints were received from persons as to their hours of labour. It was stated that cooks in public establishments worked from 80 to 110 hours per week, and that Government employees in freezing works worked on an average 70 hours, and that there was no proper half-holiday. A complaint was also made that the Government reduced the wages of skiilled instrument fitters from 9s to 7s a day.

The Unemployed - found work in quarantine areas


MR RUSKIN'S ESTATE
- John Ruskin's estate work only £10,000, even though he'd inherited a fortune of £200,000
- Antisweating League - cooks were working 80-110 hrs/wk in some places


P6 BUBONIC PLAGUE / 
INCREASED NUMBER OF CASES
 / SUBURBAN DEPOTS FOR RAT RECEPTION
-
5 cases
731 rats Depots at Waverley, Woollahra, Paddington, Leichhardt, Annandale
- 200 inoculated


On inspection
 1899 - 2263 official visits to factories. Of 301 factories inspected in current yr, 210 were instructed to either limewash, scrub, improve ventilation or sanitary provisions. There were then 1909 registered factories in metropolitan area. Three inspectors were employed, 2 men and one woman. In 1899, they made 2263 visits, no more than one or two/factory (Less, in fact) 

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, MONDAY, MAY 14TH, 1900

2020: DAY 51

SMH p8

293 Kent, Sydney, 1900, after cleansing - Source: State Library of NSW

p7  ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. / THE CRATER ENGULPHED. /LONDON, May 12.

FBEDERATION. / MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S FINAL MEMORANDUM. / AMENDMENTS MEAN NO MIS-TRUST.
IMPERIAL INTERFERENCE REGRETTED. / MR. BARTON SAYS IT IS “MISCHIEVOUS AND MEDDLESOME."
MR. CHAMBERLAIN RELYING ON "A DEFEATED MINORITY."

LORD LAMINGTON'S SPEECH./ LONDON, May 12. / ENGLISH PRESS OPINION. / LORD LAMINGTON'S EXTRAORDINARY SPEECH DECLARED UNSEEMLY AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL. /LONDON, May 12. Mr. C. C. Kingston (South Australia),in a letter to the newspapers, repudiated the monstrous suggestion that Australia's claim to decide purely Australian questions was equivalent to an attempt to dismember the British Empire, and declared that the speech of Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland, was an unseemly, unconstitutional, and unfair intrusion. … The " Daily News " says that if the Australian people are behind the federal delegates it would be idle, mischievous, and dangerous to try and thwart them … 

THE COMMONWEALTH BILL - to be introduced into House of Commons by Mr Chamberlain today (May 14)

MAFEKING RELIEF COLUMN. / MOVING BY FORCED MARCHES. / LONDON, May 12,

(P8) THE POLITICAL SITUATION. / THE QUESTION OF CALLING PARLIAMENT TOGETHER. / THE COMMONWEALTH BILL. / CRITICISM BY MR. REID./ REPLY BY THE PREMIER.
The leader of the Opposition is concerned at the delay on the part of the Government in calling Parliament together. Mr. Reid informed a Herald reporter last night that the Premier had promised that the Legislative Assembly should meet at the end of April. As a matter of fact the Government has been in office for eight and a half months, out of which time Parliament has only been sitting for two months. Having in view the duties of members to the public, Mr Reid thinks that the Government has extended the recess altogether too long He is also of opinion that the Government is " too secret " The public, he says, ought to be supplied with the precise form in which Mr Chamberlain desires to amend the Commonwealth Bill The Australian delegates had, no doubt, fully reported on the matter, and the public have a right to information at the earliest possible moment Mr Lyne was responsible to the people of this colony, and the Parliaments of Australia should certainly have an opportunity of expressing their opinion on any alterations in the bill. Mr Reid also prophesies that when the House does meet there will be trouble in store for the Government over their Budden and illegal " resumption of the Darling Harbour wharfs. 

THE BUBONIC PLAGUE. / STATEMENT BY DR. THOMPSON. / THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
"Without saying that we are sure, we may say that we begin to perceive a kind of premonition of, at all events, the end of the outbreak. We cannot be too sanguine because the data - the signs - are not perfectly clear, and indeed are not clear enough for real definite description. They are rather matters of epidemiological instinct or intuitions...The professional sanitarian is generally able to see things which he cannot always give good reasons for..."



JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, SUNDAY MAY 13TH, 1900

2020: DAY 50

WEEKLY REPORT OF BUREAUCRATIC ENDEAVOURS
MAY 6th – MAY 12th

Batson's Lane off Sussex St, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

Register of Letters to the Colonial Secretary:
May 7, From the Public Service Board re Appointment at Coast Hospital; from the Chief Medical Officer re Appointment at Coast Hospital, inoculations of civil servants 
May 8th, From the Chief Medical Officer Re Temporary promotion of nurses;
May 11, From C. Nom re compensation (letter written on April 19th – tardy response) ; From the Director of the Asylum, re the transfer of a nurse to the Quarantine Station. May 11: From the Commandant re typhoid cases from South Africa; from the CMO re Estimates.

Extracts from the Minutes of the Board of Health
May 8th, a case of Plague in Brisbane.
- Rats on Cockatoo Island - Public Works Dept. taking eradication measures.
- Dr Bennett from Melbourne offers his experience from Bombay. Resolved: not required.
- release of patients continues.
- inspection of railway passengers on Queensland border. Application from Dr Freyer seeking appointment as Inspecting M.O. Decided no action necessary.
- Alleged needless damage to property, 101 Quay St and neighbouring houses. President to make personal enquiry.
- alleged neglect of duty by Inspectors - houses which had never been entered declared clean by displayed notices.
- possible importation of plague from infected ports. Concern about imports from Manilla.
- Men confined within Quarantine Depot to be allowed leave of absence as found convenient, men to wash and change clothes before leaving enclosure.
- Sanitary Inspector directed to instruct his men not to wear their yellow badges when off duty in public streets.
May 10, Vic Govt to exercise greater stringency in examination of passengers arriving by train from NSW.
- Chinese patients to be accommodated in tents at Quarantine Station, it was decided.

NSW Govt. Gazette, 1900, Vol 2, Govt. Printer, 1900
Further extensions of scheduled areas – and release and rescission of earlier scheduled areas.

Register of Deaths
Between May 6th & May 12th, there are 10 deaths from Bubonic Plague – 5 men (Etienne Angele, 65, John Hardwick, 53, Ah Hon, 26, Arthur Reid, 25, Michael Molony, 25) 2 women, (Margaret Lawrence, 64, Catherine Henderson, 49), a 5 year old girl (Gladys Caroline McAlloon) and 2 youths (Edmund Edwards, 15 and Harrie Sarina, 17) - the same number of deaths as the previous week.

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, SATURDAY MAY 12TH, 1900

2020: DAY 49

27 Sussex St, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

P4 CITY WORKMEN’S MODEL DWELLINGS
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD - Sir: – … (Effect of cleansing has been to ‘unhouse’ numerous people who work on the wharfs)… “But in London (where there are not labour members of Parliament) ample provision is made by legislation that when a public company (companies do these things there) in order to obtain space for its operation has to demolish workmen’s buildings, it shall erect equal dwelling accommodation for them elsewhere; and besides the munificence of public-spirited citizens has for many years been well to the fore in providing model dwellings for the overcrowding population. The Peabody benefactions are case in point. These are managed on commercial lines and have been so successful that their example has been followed even for investment purposes by public associations. The Government by their act in resuming these harbour frontages will liberate a large 

p10 BUBONIC PLAGUE
YESTERDAY’S CASES
WORK AT THE WHARFS - 4 deaths
- 2 new cases
- 712 rats
 (Weekend reports getting shorter - half a column. Meanwhile, pages of news on The War, 2000 words on the Hawkesbury Agricultural Show, another 1750 words on the Wollongong Agricultural Bazaar, lots of entertainment, commercial & shipping news, court reports, theatre and entertainment etc)

P14 THE CYCLORAMA. - “ The usual representations are given daily at the Cyclorama depicting ancient Jerusalem, and after the historical lectures visitors never fail to remember with pleasure a visit to the hall of illusions. “ [The Cyclorama was a rotunda that existed on Harris St, near Central (where UTS now is). It housed panoramas of various scenes including a famous panorama painting of Jerusalem on the Day of the Crucifiction]

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR, FRIDAY MAY 11TH, 1900

2020: DAY 48

SMH, p6

Union Co’s store, south-side, Sydney, 1900 - Source: State Library of NSW

(p4)- Another editorial about rubbish: Why doesn’t City Council do something about installing a destructor? Other councils have done it; “ … While the city is doing nothing toward improvement, but leaving garbage half the night in the streets for ragpickers to scatter abroad, until the scavengers collect it in open carts and take it across the length and breadth of the city and dump it down on the surface of a public park …”

(p5) THE WAR

ADVANCE OF LORD ROBERTS
BOER TRENCHES ABANDONED
ENEMY RETREATING
BRITISH PURSUING CAUTIOUSLY
COLONIAL TROOPS IN ACTION 

AT THE FRONT
AT BLOEMFONTEIN BOERS SEIZE THE WATERWORKS.
SOMEONE BUNGLED.
AUSTRALIANS EXONERATED (syndicated report)


(p6) BUBONIC PLAGUE

INOCULATION RESUMED TODAY

DREDGING ONTHE FORESHORES
 575 rats destroyed


CITIZENS VIGILANCE COMMITTEE
A GRATIFYING PROGRESS REPORT
 - 30 complaints to Board of Health and City Council 
Branches formed "to carry on the crusade" against insanitary conditions. “…Later, on receipt of epresentations that rats were being brought into the city by tram, the chairman and the honorary secretaries waited on the president of the Board of Health and urged the advisability of establishing local depots for the receipt and destruction of rats…”
Dr Graham: what was needed was very little talk and a great deal of work.


WEXFORD-STREET QUARANTINE AREA / DAMAGE TO PROPERTY 

EXHIBITION BUILDING AS PLAGUE HOSPITAL / STRONG PROTEST FROM REDFERN


SHIPPING NEWS
THE CHINGTU G.S. Yuill & Co - agents - announce that the Chingtu has left Hong Kong, on the way to Sydney, picking up a cargo of opium in Macao.