MORTALITY RATE OF MAORIS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 75, 15 April 1937, Page 12

MORTALITY RATE OF MAORIS

-Prees Aaaoolafcion.l

Better Food and Housing Needed CHILDREN'S DEATHS

(By

Teiegrapb-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. The opinion that the poor health of Ihe Maori race conld be improved only by the provision of better food, clothing and housing, by education and by controlled economy, was espressed by Dr. D. Cook,- medical officer of health for Whangarei, in an address on Maori hygiene given at the annual conference of the NeW Xea'lan'd brancli of the Royal Shnitary Institute. D'r. Cook said saxiiUry inspectOTS, and particularly those engaged in field work, shonld understand the prciblems Of the Maofi race. 'fhey shcfuld be able ti give practical advice fe'garding certain diseases and other matters. After outlining the history Of the Maori race, the speaker said the Maori of fo-day was pTOgressing satisfactorily, but his health Was atrocibus. OnC f Oason was that the Maofri had fio instxnct for bodily comfort, and thus he was prone to skin infection, Dr. Cook dealt in detail with the various diseases suffered by Maoris and produced a ntnnber oi graphs comparing the incidence of disease and of the , birth and death rates with those of tho pakeha. The graphs showed that, whbreas the pakeha death rate had been reduced from 10 per 1000 of population in 1920 to under eight in 1933, the Maori rate had decreased but from 18 to 16 per 1000. In the case of infantile mortality the statistics revealed that more European children under * one-day-old died than Maori children, This was because the Maori woman 'lived a more natural life, said Dr. Cook, and had certain physical advantages. On the other hand, the incidence of deaths of Maori children one-year-old was 90 per 1000 as compared with the European rate of 30 per 1000. At Te Hapua, in the far north, about 25 per eent, of the Maori children died before ithey reached five years of age. The Maori maternal mOrtality rate was about two to two and a-half times greater than that of the pakeha, due largoly to the fact that no preparations were made by the Maori for child birth.