AN INFURIATED MOTHER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4932, 29 January 1926, Page 2

AN INFURIATED MOTHER.

WAIHI CONSTABLE ATTACKED.

INFLUENCE OF TOHUNGAISM. The Distirct Health Officer, Mr H. H. Martindale, and Constable Dalbeth, of Waihi, had a most trying experience in the performance of their respective duties at Whangamata early last week (states the “Telegraph”). Having received information that a young married native woman named M?s J. Douglas '.was suffering from an infectious disease, and an inkling that any intereference on their part would meet with opposition, the officers went prepared for some trouble, but nothing approaching that experienced.

Acting under c,ection 84 of the Hospitals Act, 1920, authorising removal, they proceeded to the home of the patient’s mother, Mrs Slade, who had previously’ been informed that it was necessary’ to have Mrs Douglas removed, but who took strong exception to .any interference, and stoutly refused to let the visitors, touch her daughter. The house in which the sick woman was lodged was locked against the inspector and the constable, but they forced the. lock of the front door, and then followed a scene which the policeman is not likely to forget for many a long day. Without preliminary warning Mrs Slade started a violent attack on Constable Dalbe.th, first using a stick, then her teeth and feet, kicking and biting with the frenzy of a mad woman. The frantic native tried in every way conceivable to. maim the officer, and in the process left teeth and other marks on him.

Ultimately the woman yVas. held long enough to enable the inspector to get the sick daughter out of the house, and she was conveyed to a launch which wgs in readiness to proceed to Bowentown, but, unfortunately, the sea was too rough to permit of the journey being undertaken. Early the following morning the patient was, put aboard the launch and a start made foiy Boweritown under wretched weather conditions. After a long and .trying sea trip the partyreached Bowentpwn late in the afternoon, and there, the Waihi ambulance was in waiting to convey the young woman to Waihi, where, on arrival, she was admitted .to the hospital.

It was stated that the prejudice against the removal of Mrs Douglas Tas influenced by a local “tohunga,” and so exercised in mind was the mother of the ailing woman that at one stage she implored the constable to kill her, alleging that he? daughter was bound to die if taken to the hospital.