THE MAORIS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1737, 12 July 1917, Page 4

THE MAORIS.

NEED FOR MORE NURSES; A MINISTERIAL STATEMENT.’ Recently Mr W. IT. Field, M.P. for this electorate, wrote to the Minister for Public Health on the need for an increased number of nurses to work amongst the Maori people. MiField has received the following reply from the Minister; — x “Dear Sir. —With reference ■ to your letter of the 9th January, in which you advocate the employment of nurses to give instructions to Native mothers with a view to reducing mortality among Maori infant children, and in which von state that the nurses arc far too few in number and are consequently over-worked, it is unfortunately true that in some parts of the Dominion this is the case, and every effort has been made by the Department to quid to the number, but without success. The reasons for that are various. At the present time many nurses are reluctant to bind themselves to any work which may prevent their being sent away on active service. Before the war it was also very 7 difficult to find nurses. Advertisements inserted in (he papers got few suitable replies. The conditions of living are not inviting; a lonely cottage or a room in a country hotel or boardinghouse docs not induce a woman who can get plenty 7 of work in town to bury herself in the backblocks. Tim difficulty of getting about the district often going long distances, sometimes in very bad weather, by unmade, dangerous roads, along or accompanied only by a strange Maori, is enough to dismay a girl unaccustomed to country life. . “The nursing of patients under the conditions in many Maori pas and the difficulty for the nurses of getting sleeping accommodation or fooi I that she can eat, disheartens many 7 of the nurses. They find also that the work is slow in showing any result, and very disappointing. In spite of these drawbacks, however, we have some few nurses who have stuck to the work f . several years. “With a view to making the conditions of their work more comfortable. 1 have decided to provide cottages for these nurses, am! have written to (lie Minister of Native Affairs, asking if the propo.-al fur building ilie nurses’ collages in any locality, together with the estimated cost, is placed before him he will be glad lo consider whether any coniribution shall be made out of the Civil List Vote. I have given instructions that a schedule be prepared of I lie collages required and an estimate made of the cost. You mav rest assured that I am quite alive to the necessity of endeavouring to make the nurses’ lot a pleasant one; but, as I have stated above, it is not easy to get nurses at present Lo take up this work.”