NATIVE SUPERSTITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3991, 31 August 1929, Page 3

NATIVE SUPERSTITION.

Whether an elderly Native woman. should he allowed to perish on a hillside, in observance of superstitious rites, or be compulsorily given medical treatment in the Thames Hospital, is a question that has been troubling the Thames police and medical authorities for over a year. The woman concerned lives with her husband at Puriri (says the “New Zealand Herald”). For several years she has suffered from a painful internal complaint. When afflicted, her husband at her especial wish, carries her to a bleak hillside, where for weeks on end she has lain in all sorts of weather, enduring great agony, until the pain has passed. The police became interested in the case and endeavoured to persuade the woman to undergo medical treatment. To overcome her objection a doctor, in disguise, examined her superficially, but was unable to make an exact diagnosis. Medical men state that she will certainly die if she is not removed to a hospital. On the other hand, the police, having no ■power compulsorily to remove her to such an institution, are eoneev:' nod at the possibility of the woman again being seized and dying 1 a

lonely death, uncovered, on the bleak hillside. In the meantime the woman is being attended by the Government Nurse for Natives.