DISQUIETING DISCLOSURE

Evening Star, Issue 22441, 11 September 1936, Page 8

DISQUIETING DISCLOSURE

HIGH MORTALITY AMONG MAORIS MEDICAL CARE TOTALLY INADEQUATE RAVAGES OF TYPHOID AND TUBERCULOSIS [Per United Press Association.] HAMILTON, September 11. That the Maoris are dying twice as fast as the pakllias, that babies up to one year succumbed over three times as _ frequently, and that tuberculosis claimed over 10 times the number of victims were disquieting facts disclosed by the Medical Officer of Health in Hamilton, .Dr H. B. Turbott, in a statement to the Waikato Hospital Board, when he gave a tentative outline of the Health Department’s proposals for reticulating the extensive Waikato district with a widespread nursing system.

“ Last year typhoid fever fatally affected 36 times more Maoris than pakehas, and approximately seven Maori mothers die in childbirth to every four pakeha mothers,” he added. “ This state of affairs constitutes a challenge to the pakehas of New Zealand.”

It was obvious from the death rates he had quoted that the Maoris were dying from the lack of correct medical care, faulty knowledge of health, and wrong care of the sick. Maori mothers were letting too many babies die, while tuberculosis caused many • deaths. Helped by bad housing and (too often) bad diet, typhoid fever would continue to claim its regular victims until Maori housing and sanitation were on a standard equal to the European. Maori mothers too often died in childbirth from lack of ante-natal care.

Dr Turbott strongly stressed the necessity for the settlement of Natives in small allotments, which had been markedly successful at East Cape.