THE HEALTH OF THE MAORIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1131, 19 May 1911, Page 9

THE HEALTH OF THE MAORIS.

MEASURES BEING TAKEN. It is interesting to learn that Cabinet has approved new measures regarding the supervision of sanitation .and arrangements for combating sickness auong the Maoris. At the monthly meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board, held on Wednesday, Dr. Valintine .announced that tho whole control of these matters would cow be under the Public Health Department, which would enforce measures to safeguard tho health of the Natives, tho same as it did amongst pakehas. The Department would have control of tho annual vote of <£3GOO I for this purpose, and it was proposed to appoint about seventeen nurses, who would visit the kaingas, report upon and attend to tho sanitation and sickness amongst Maoris, and strive to educate tho Maoris in these directions. Instead of having this branch of the Department controlled from Wellington, there would be local control, in the hands of the hospital boards, as boards of health. The Departmeut would pay • the salaries, etc., of the nurses, but the nurses would bs under tho control of tho hospital boards, to whom they would report and under whoso order? they would work. Ho proposed to station one mirrc in the combined Stratford, Hawera, and Patea districts, where there was a Native population of 1083. In North Taranaki, with a Native population of 2007, two nurses would probably bs stationed. Where two nurses were stationed in one district, one should, if possible, be a Maori. Tho nurses would bo directed to encourage and assist any young Maori girls who showed aptitude, for nursing. It was pointed out a,t the meeting that tangis were often responsible for the spread of disease, for they generally caused insanitary conditions. Natives often spent all the money they possessed at these taugis, and then lived on anything they could get, thus predisposing themselves to sickness. Dr. Vnlintinc snid that the nurses would have to use their influence to get the tangis shortened, and, if they could not, Hie boards (with the assistance of the health officers) should tnke steps to enforoe tho shortening of them.