INFANTILE MORTALITY. DISCUSSION BY THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY. AUCKLAND, February 26.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 89

INFANTILE MORTALITY. DISCUSSION BY THE YOUNG MAORI PARTY. AUCKLAND, February 26.

The death Tate amongst Maori infant*, was the subject of discussion at the conference of the Young Maori party to-day, when a paper on " Infantile Mortality " was read by Dr Te Rangi Hiroa. The Doctor regretted that exact statistics were not available, but from his personal observation he knew that the Maori infant mortality was very high. This was due to the same causes as with the Europeans, but to an even greater extent. Before the arrival of the European the Maori was a. healthy race, bub at the present day, owing to the clash between the two systems, the Maori had suffered in physique and health. The mothers did not have the robust health of their ancestors, and as a result their offspring suffered. The Maori mother of old had only one method of feeding her child. In these day-? there were cow's milk, tinned milk, and the various tinned foods to complicate matters. If the European suffered as a result of this ignorance in the proper use of the alternate foods, then the Maori suffered still more. Excessive oigaretteemokinsf and drinking were often indulged in during the period of suckling, and ignorance of proper clothinK and hygiene helped to swell the mortality list. He exhorted the association that, as their ancestors had banded together in times gone by to raise men to avenge some tribal defeat, co now they should band together to raise a people with a knowledge of these matters to avenge the deaths that ignorance had wrought upon the race.

By a coincidence a gentleman struck an unusual " find " at Eltham while watohing the demolition of Messrs Hallenstein Bros.' old premises. Something among the debris attracted his attention, and on picking it up he found that it^was a photograph of his father, who had been dead for 20 1 yeara.