Address from the Central Board of Vaccination to the Aboriginal Natives of New Zealand.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 3, 1 March 1855, Page 13

Address from the Central Board of Vaccination to the Aboriginal Natives of New Zealand.

We beg to call the special attention of the natives to the "Address of the Central Board of Vaccination." We trust that this important document will be read with that interest which it demands, and that the excellent advice it contains will be gratefully responded to.

Seven years ago Governor Grey was afraid that Small Pox might be introduced into New Zealand by some of the European settlers, and he circulated throughout the country an account of that dreadful disease, and urged you to get yourselves and your children vaccinated, the remedy which protects the human race from Small Pox. The House of Representatives of New Zealand at present composed of settlers ; having learned at their first assembly, that many of you are not vaccinated, suggested that a sum of money should be set aside to be spent on vaccination ; and that a Board should be established to superintend and promote vaccination among your children. Most of you have heard that the Small Pox is a disease which appears in the form of hundreds of small sores all over the body, and that in every country where vaccination is not practised, one half of those attacked with the disease die. And that among people of your color, the Small Pox is eyen more fatal than this. A few years ago, a tribe of men in America, 2000 in number, were attacked with Small Pox for the fust time, and all died bnt 35. The remedy which will preserve you from Small Pox is called vaccination, it done by pricking into the skin in two or three places on the arm a little substance. In six or seven days the places where these scratches are made, become round, painful sores, with a depres sion in their centres; and in seven days more they heal, leaving small marks. Persons properly vaccinated, may live with those suffering "with Small Pox and not contract the disease; and should they unfortunately get it, which happens very rarely, it is slight and very seldom dangerous. Many of you may say, "We have often heard the Small Pox is coming, but it has not come, and may never come." Do not believe men who say this, for rest assured, that sooner or later, the Small Pox will visit New Zealand, from the introduction of Steam Communication, and the increasing number of sailing vessels which now arrive from all parts of the world. It is not more than two years since Small Pox appeared,, and proved very fatal among the inhabitants of some of the Islands of the Pacific Ocean, who speak a language very similar to your own, and from whom your ancestors have sprung. Within the last year, you have seen, and suffered from a new disease called Measles. Reflect what your num-

bers wouid now have been had the Measles been the Small Pox. The members of the Central Board of Vaccination, appointed by the Governor to carry out the ■wishes of the House of Representatives, have only now to urge you to get yourselves and your children vaccinated as soon as possible. They think it right to state, that in almost all countries where two different races of men have suddenly came together, as you and the settlers have in New Zealand, a hatred and distrust of each other have been generally the result j it must therefore make you happy to find, that between you and the settlers in New Zealand there exists no hatred or distrust, but, the greatest friendship and confidence. The Representatives of the people have done all they could to preserve you and yours from the Small Pox, and the Central Board of Vaccination hope that peace, trade, progression, civilization, with better food, will cause your race to increase and not decrease; for it is the sincere wish of the Settlers, that your children and their children shall live together in New Zealand as one Tribe.