HEALTH OF MAORIS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4977, 21 May 1926, Page 3

HEALTH OF MAORIS.

CONDITIONS AT RATANA. NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT. Dr. McKibbon, Director of the Hygiene Division of the Health Department, after visiting Ratana. village., ha,s come .to the coinclusion that some drastic measures are necessary to compel subscribers to the Ratana movement to put the sanitation of the village in order. From time to time anything from 500 to 5000 or 6000 natives , congregate there, and as the encampment is devoid of conveniences in the matter df sanitation it constitutes a danger to the whole countryside population. A number of typhoid are being treated in different North Island districts; and it is known that many of the victims have been at. Rataina, while others attended big Ratana rallies held elsewhere. The institution of water and drainage systems is imperative.. The Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young, speaking on typhoid, said that approximately 2000 natives had been vaccinated in Hawkes Bay and the middle north and North Island dis-, tricts, with ,a view, to rendering them immune from contagion in times of. stress, such as epidemics. The vaccine was administered free. Doctors Buck and McKibbon had been, cooperating in the districts affected, and had .done good work.