The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1908. THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 323, 9 October 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1908. THE HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE.

The report of the Public Health Department is of such great bulk, and deals statistically and generally with so many topics, that it is quite impossiblo to do more than note quite 1 briefly some of its outstanding features. Of. these the most important is the evidence that the birth-rate is still unsatisfactory. It. is true that the birth-rate. per thousand of the population, 27.30, is the highest since 1893, and is on the up-grade, but the proportion of births to every marriage solemnised in the preceding year has steadily declined from 5,14 in. 1&37 to 3.15 in 1907. The birth-rate per thousand married women of chil'd-bearing ages has also 1 steadily- and continuously declined since 1878, when one married woman- in every three of the ages. specified gave birth to a child, whereas in 1906 the rate was less than one in four. We are very glad to note that in commenting upon this undesirable drift, Dr. Mason expresses his impatience of the quack political remedies • suggested from time to time. It is not very helpful to be told, as he tells us, that the remedy is to be found "in a national awakening and an increase in patriotism," but it is better to be ' told the unhelpful truth than to be persuaded into accepting silly political experiments based on the idea that people will have more children 1 if they can thereby obtain extra votes for themselves, or higher old-age pensions, or some other material benefit. There is some consolation in the fact that the laudable habit of getting married is, notably increasing. The increase has been steady and' continuous until the proportion of marriages to every 1000 of population is now one of the highest in the world. But it must be remembered that "nuptiality" keeps rising in France also, and France is becoming depopulated. The death-rate in 1907 was, unfortunately, the highest since 1883—it is worth noting that the rate in Wellington was lower than in any of the other cities. Inlant mortality showed a very sharp increase when compared with the year 1906; the rate of infant deaths increasing from 62.1 per 1000 births to 88.79. In view of the activity of the infant-saving movement, this is a really remarkable result, and no explanation of it is given, i In his report upon tuberculosis, the Chief Health Officer deals with a now and undesirablo feature of the campaign against this terrible disease. "For long," ho says, "the warnings issued as to the infectivity of consumption went unheeded, but there came a time when they were hearkened to, and then followed an unreasoning fear and consequent isolation with occasional injustice to the poor sufferer." The campaign, that is to say, has succeeded too well. The "cured" consumptive becomes an object of fear to the public. Imagine tho fate of the man who has spent, say, nino months in a sanatorium and leaves it full of gratitude and a desire for work. Even the most charitable fight shy of having him near to them. Ho has spent all his savings, if he had any, in tho two or throe gears' battle for health before ho on-

I .tared tho sanatorium, and he leaves the institution usually full of hope, but devoid of money. All indoor work is barred to him; ho cannot compete with tho strong man in navvying, lumping, or agricultural work. Ho seeks for light out-door work, but rarely finds it. Ho must perforco livo in the cheapest of boardinghouses, often sleeping in tho same room with othors; his food is poor. Repeated denials soon quonch even tho "spes phthisica." Friends may be wishful to help, but they have children and thoy fear him. An appeal to tho Charitablo Aid Board brings him enough to koop starvation off, but his descent is steady, and the ond easily foreseen. Improper food, bad hygienic conditions, and crushed hope mako him an easy prey to colds, and a varying time, never vory long, sees him an applicant again for a bed in the hospital or sanatorium. What the public should remember, it is pointed out, is that the "cured" consumptive, even though he be still . "ill," is not really a danger, since the careful habits drilled into him while an inmato of the sanatorium are practically ineradicable. The interesting account of "Karere," the tree-planting camp for consumptives which has been established near Waipa, and Dr. Makgill's report on the possibility of establishing a larger encampment, seem to demonstrate the wisdom of spending some money on coupling the treatment of the consump- , tive with a scheme of afforestation. A feature of the Department's report each year is the section dealing with tho Native race. In the current report, this section is particularly interesting. We learn that the Tohunga Suppression Act has had a good effect, but that the "whito tohunga" has profited by it; that, according to Dr. Pomare, who "would rather save one baby than keep ten lunatics ,or useless aged Maoris alive," the simplest concern for Maori babies would reduce by one-half "tho terrible infant mortality"; that "the injudicious wearing of European clothing" is a fruitful cause of consumption amongst the Natives; that "nervous breakdown" ■will follow the modernisation of the Native; that, according to Dr. Buck, "the introduction of the feeding-bottle into the Maori home has caused as many deaths as tho guns of Hongi"; that tuberculosis afflicted the race before tho coming of the pakeha; that tho Maori who goes to .live in a city places his life in danger. Throughout this section of the report, in short, we encounter tho fact that white civilisation threatens tho Maori race with ruin. Dr. Buck, however, is not a pessimist. After discussing the tenacity of the old superstitions of the Maori, he observes that, since it was as lato as 1846 that England abolished the Law of Deodand, which was based on a gross superstition, it is "really astonishing that the Maori has forgotten so much" of his forefathers' beliefs in the supernatural. But even if tho .Maori escapes wholly from the mists of superstition, it appears that he -has only escaped into physical dangers. In the face of this fact—of the inability of the Maori, as things are at present, to adapt himself. to an endurance of tho conditions of white civilisation—it is time that we whites freed our minds from all cant and insincerity and considered quite frankly what we intend to do with the Maori. • As matters stand, there is no such thing as "a Native policy" in sight. We interfere' with, tho Maori's lands, we restrict his independence, we attempt to improve -his health in a scrambling fashion—ancTth'at is all. Has the Maori a future? That question must be'honestly determined; and if he has, let us assist .to build it for him.