MAORIS AND HEALTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 649, 29 April 1929, Page 16

MAORIS AND HEALTH

MORE CO-OPERATION NEEDED DR. ELLISON IN NORTH j Satisfaction is felt by Te Akarana j Maori Association at the transfer to Auckland from Wellington of Dr. K. j Ellison, director of Maori hygiene. It hopes that the transfer will lead : to the reopening of the Maori Hygiene ; Office in Auckland. The main reason advanced by the I association in favour of the suggestion i that the office should be centred in Auckland is that the Auckland Province holds easily the greatest number of Maoris. The city, too, is within easy reach of such centres of- Maori life as Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty, the Waikato and the King Country, and North Auckland. In the opinion of the association, the epidemic of dysentery which has been so rife in and around Auckland and, more seriously, in the South Auckland health district, shows the necessity of direct contact by the Health Depart- j ment with the large native communi- j ties. Communications have gone from the association to the department in connection with the outbreak of dysentery. Among the arrangements noti- j tied to the association in order to cope ' with the epidemic was the informa- j tion that Dr. Ellison had been sent , North to supervise the Maori Hygiene j Division’s efforts to suppress the illness. The outbreak is now regarded by ! the department as having run its ; course. Although there have been I fresh notifications, mainly from South Auckland, in the past few days, most ! of the patients contracted the illness several weeks ago.