THE NATIVE RACE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 323, 9 October 1908, Page 4

THE NATIVE RACE.

HIGH MORTALITY AMONGST INFANTS. Somo interesting remarks on the mortality amongst Native infants, which is. stated to bo very high, appear in tho annual report of Dr. Te Rangihiroa, Assistant Native Health Officer. "The old-time Maori," hp observes," had excellent laws for nursing-mothers as regards diets and cleanliness. Also, in ;a country, devoid of the/larger mammals, in-' fants were fed' entirely at the breast. Since tho advent of the cow, tinned milk,' and, feeding-bottles, much trouble has come 'upon them. Though the Maori mother doks-nbt neglect her children to attend social ! functions, many have' forsaken breast feeding for a different reason. They have in very many cases copied the example of the Eurobecause what the learned pakeha does is right. The introduction of the foed-ing-bottle into tho Maori home has caused as many deaths as the guns of Hongi. Flour and warm water placed in the miracleworking feeding-bottle has been ' given' to j delicate infants. The cow is a rare animal in many of the Maori villages, so tinned milk is largely used. As to qualities and mixing, the vast majority are wofully ignorant. Any warm liquid of a whitish appearance' is milk of tlie requisite strength. The practical work lies in a scheme of district nursing. I would place the care of infants as 'the most important of the duties. Tho preparation of humanised milk is he■yond the reach ef the Maori, for we are .too scattered to have corporations to prepare it. In our case we should get the maximum results if tho mothers were practically instructed in cleanliness and right proportions of cow's milk and water with .the other practical rules of infant-feeding and infaat-caro. ■ A' health ofiicer speaks and passes on, but a, nurse would visit and see that instructions were being carried out, for tho Maori is liable to. weary of-new things and to lapse." ...