TREATMENT OF MAORIS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 752, 27 August 1929, Page 7

TREATMENT OF MAORIS

HOSPITAL BOARD’S BURDEN APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT (From Our O-icn Correspondent) HAMILTON, Today. | The cost of providing hospital treatment for indigent Maoris was discussed at a conference of hospital boards yesterday. It was decided to appeal to the Government for assistance. Mr. Campbell Johnstone, chairman j of the Waikato Hospital Board, pre-! sided over a large attendance. He ! said the boards or the North Island ! were not being fairly dealt -with in j being required to pay for the treatment of indigent Maoris. No one wanted to see the Maoris die out, but there was no reason why they should be given treatment at the expense of the white population. They should be put on the same basis as Europeans with respect to the payment of rates. Mr. Johnstone added that in two years the Waikato Board had treated 583 Maoris, and had earned £5,072 in fees. Of this sum £42S, or 8.4 per cent., had been collected. Mr. A. Peebles (Bay of Plenty) said the Whakatane County had been able to collect only 85 per cent, of the rates levied on highly valued native land. The Bay of Plenty Hospital Board had collected 33 per cent, of fees incurred by Maoris and 59 per cent, from European patients. He considered the Government should pay the difference between the native fees collected and the European fees collected. “SOMETHING FOR NOTHING” Mr. J. H. McCarroli (Kaipara) said many efforts had been made to make the Maoris self-reliant, but in his opinion they were degenerating and as long as they could get something for nothing they would pay nothing. Mr. W. E. Hale (Thames) declared that the treatment of natives in the Thames district had cost the ratepayers £2,000 during the last two years, and the only return received was £ 160. Mr T. Davey (Wairoa) considered an extra grant should be paid to those boards that had to treat Maoris. The Maoris should be encouraged to farm their lands and make them productive. By these means the Maoris would derive an income with which rates could be paid. SERIOUS GRIEVANCE Mr. W. Wallace (Auckland) said the Hospital Boards’ Association had been pressing for relief since the Hon. G. W. Russell’s period of office. The boards had serious grievances, but had been unable to obtain redress. At Orakei the Maoris recently received huge sums of money from the sale of land, yet these same natives were now receiving charitable aid. He was of the opinion that the Government should assist the boards who were embarrassed by the heavy cost of treating Maoris. The following resolution was carried unanimously:—“That seeing the welfare of the Maoris is a Dominion affair, the Government be urged to pay to those hospital boards who gave treatment to Maoris from whom only small payments are obtained, the difference between the percentage of fees collected from the Maoris and the percentage of fees collected from the Europeans in each hospital district concerned.” Messrs. Peebles, Johnstone, Burgess and T. S. Houston were elected to present the matter to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, in co-operation with the Hospital Boards’ Association.