SQUALID CONDITIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 6

SQUALID CONDITIONS

PRIMITIVE NATIVES THREE DEATHS INVESTIGATED Press Association PUKEKOHE, Today. Conditions of a squalid nature prej vail at the Maori pa at Te Ruahine, j an isolated settlement near Te Kauwhata. according to the district cor- ! oner, Air. C. K. Lawrie, J.r.. who has just returned after conducting an inquest regarding the death of three j Maoris who died suddenly. The whares in which the Maoris lived are described as of a primitive type, constructed of manuka scrub and 1 old iron, and totally unfit for human ' j habitation, it was difiicult to realise | that human beings could reconcile ■ themselves to such conditions. A Maori woman "ged 17 gave birth ! to a boy, which died soon after birth, and tbe mother died two days later. | Another child four months old beloug- |! ins to a different .family also died. it was stated at tile inquest that neither doctor nor nurse was summoned because the Maoris did not : realise the patients were seriously ill. and furthermore the Maoris were in poor circumstances and could not afford to pay for medical treatment. Medical evidence was to the effect that the deaths were due to natural causes, there being no external signs of violence on the bodies of any of i the deceased. A verdict was returned accordingly.