894
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 38

Regulations under “The Public Health Act, 1900.”

RANFURLY, Governor.

IN exercise of the powers conferred upon him by “The Public Health Act, 1900,” His Excellency the Governor of the Colony of New Zealand doth hereby, for the purposes of that Act, make the following regulations.

REGULATIONS.

TAKING-EFFECT OF REGULATIONS.

1. THESE regulations shall come into force within the whole or such specified parts of New Zealand and at such times as the Minister, by notice in the Gazette, from time to time directs.

INTERPRETATION.

2. In these regulations, if not inconsistent with the context,—

“ The Act ” means “ The Public Health Act, 1900.”

“ Dwellinghouse ” includes every house in which any person resides or intended for human habitation, whether occupied or not, and extends to every out-building, yard, drain, and sewer in connection with such house.

HOUSE-TO-HOUSE INSPECTION.

3. The local authority shall forthwith cause a careful inspection to be made of every dwellinghouse within its district, or within such part thereof as is directed by the Minister.

4. (1.) The Inspector or other person making the inspection shall report to the District Health Officer or to the Chief Health Officer the result of his inspection in the case of every dwellinghouse inspected by him.

(2.) Such report shall be in the Form No. 1 in the First Schedule hereto, and shall contain an answer to every question therein set forth.

(3.) The report shall be signed by the Inspector, and shall bear the true date on which the inspection was made.

INNS AND LODGINGHOUSES.

5. With respect to every inn and lodginghouse in the district, the Inspector shall, in addition to the report herein-before directed, furnish to the District Health Officer or to the Chief Health Officer a further report in the Form No. 2 in the First Schedule hereto.

6. The number of lodgers that may be kept in any inn or lodginghouse shall be regulated as follows :—

In every bedroom or dormitory there shall be not less than 750 cubic feet of free air-space for every person occupying the room, two children under the age of ten years being counted for this purpose as an adult.

7. (1.) The Inspector shall give notice in writing under his hand to the occupier of every inn and lodginghouse stating the maximum number of lodgers which may be accommodated in each bedroom or dormitory.

(2.) On the outside of the door of every room appropriated in any way to the use of lodgers there shall be legibly painted a distinctive number for that room.

(3.) If the number of persons allowed at any time to sleep in any bedroom or dormitory in any inn or lodginghouse is greater than the maximum number allowed by the Inspector, or if the distinctive number of each room is not kept legibly painted as aforesaid, then the occupier of that inn or lodging-house shall be liable, for each offence, to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

8. With respect to common lodginghouses (meaning thereby houses in which persons are received as lodgers for short periods, and, though strangers to each other, are allowed to inhabit one common bedroom or dormitory), the following additional provisions shall apply :—

(1.) The foundation of every such house shall be dry and well drained, and shall have abutting thereon a well laid and paved yard.

(2.) The closets, privies, and sanitary receptacles shall be in convenient situations, and of proper construction, and adapted to the scavenging arrangements of the district.

(3.) There shall be at least one closet for every twenty lodgers which the house may lawfully accommodate.

(4.) There shall be a supply of pure water, so as to allow at least 10 gallons of water per head per day for the maximum number of lodgers.

(5.) Every bedroom or dormitory in which two or more lodgers are allowed to sleep shall have special means of ventilation by means of a chimney, and, if possible, a window, opening directly to the outer air.

(6.) In addition to the distinctive number required by clause 7 of these regulations to be painted on the outside of the door of every such room, there shall be legibly painted in figures the cubic contents of such room, and the number of adult persons that may be accommodated therein.

(7.) The beds in any such room shall be stripped daily and the bedclothes fully exposed to the air for at least an hour on each day, and the beds shall not be reoccupied within eight hours of being vacated.

(8.) All slops and refuse shall be removed every day before 10 o’clock in the morning, and all utensils shall be cleansed daily.

(9.) The occupier of any such common lodginghouse who commits a breach against any provision of this clause is liable for every such breach to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

ISOLATION OF PERSONS.

9. (1.) As soon as it is known that a person is suffering from a dangerous infectious disease, the local authority shall take immediate steps so to isolate that person that he cannot endanger the safety and health of the rest of the community.

(2.) Where a hospital exists in the neighbourhood for the reception of such cases, the patient shall be conveyed there as soon as practicable in a properly constructed and suitably furnished ambulance.

(3.) Where it is impossible to remove the patient to a suitable hospital, precautions shall be taken to the satisfaction of the District Health Officer to prevent any communication between the patient and any other person except those in actual attendance on him.

(4.) All persons who have come in contact with the patient shall be removed to a suitable building, where they shall remain under observation for such period and subject to such restrictions as the District Health Officer directs.

(5.) It shall be the duty of the local authority to see that every person being a patient suffering from a dangerous infectious disease, or a person who has come in contact with such patient, is immediately provided with proper and skilled medical aid.

DISINFECTION OF BUILDINGS AND THINGS.

10. (1.) The room in which the patient lived shall be disinfected in the following manner :—

(a.) All soiled carpets, rugs, bed-linen, and other soiled materials shall be burned.

(b.) The wall-papers (if any) shall be removed and burned.

(c.) The walls shall be sprayed and the floors well washed with a 1-5,000 corrosive-sublimate solution.

(d.) The room shall then be closed up and well fumigated with sulphur-dioxide, produced as prescribed in the Second Schedule hereto.

(e.) After fumigation for twenty-four hours all windows and doors shall be opened to allow the fresh air to freely circulate.

(2.) The room must not be reoccupied for ten days after being vacated by the patient unless with the consent, in writing, of the District Health Officer.

11. All outbuildings connected with the house in which the patient lived shall be whitewashed with chloride of lime of the strength of half a pound to a gallon of water.

12. All drains, gullies, sinks, &c., shall be flushed with a 1-1,000 corrosive-sublimate solution, followed by a sufficient quantity of hot water in which soap and ordinary washing-soda have been dissolved.

DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

13. In all cases where a person has died of a dangerous infectious disease the following provisions shall apply :—

(1.) The body shall not be unnecessarily touched.

(2.) The body shall be wrapped in four layers of sheeting soaked in a 1-200 solution of corrosive sublimate.

(3.) Where it is possible the body shall be cremated, but where not possible it shall be placed in a coffin together with quicklime in the proportion of 1 lb. for every 14 lb. of body weight.

(4.) The coffin shall be watertight, and shall be wrapped in a sheet soaked in a 1-500 solution of corrosive sublimate, and placed in a wooden shell or covering, which shall be burned immediately after the burial.

(5.) No person other than the medical attendant and the nurses shall be allowed to touch the body.

(6.) The body shall not be carried to the place of burial in a hearse or other conveyance ordinarily used for burial purposes.

14. Every care shall be taken in the case of Chinese and others who lay stress on the non-mutilation of the dead to satisfy the relatives and friends of the deceased that no portion of the body is being removed.