MAORI TRIPLETS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 457, 15 June 1937, Page 6

MAORI TRIPLETS

BORN AT HAWERA Second Case On Record Triplets, three girls, were born to Maori parents at the Mount View maternity Hospital, Hawera, at the week-end. Such an event is exceedingly rare among the native race and only one other recorded case has so far been traced. The parents are Mr and Mrs Tutor! Rangiheata, Ohangai, members of the Ngati-Ruanui tribe, and the event is being made an occasion for much rejoicing at the Ohangai pa. Each of the babies weighs exactly five pounds, and they and their mother are well. One child was born on Sunday just before mid-night and the other two just afterwards.

The parents have eight other children, and the King’s Bounty is to be sought for, as far as is known, the second time in Taranaki. The only other known case of Maori triplets is recorded by Tregear in his ‘Maori Race.” After mentioning that twins are not common and triplets almost unknown, he writes that Ruapani had by one wife four children and by another 17 children, including a set of triplets and five sets of twins.

It is, however, not possible to say with certainty that this is only the second case of Maori triplets, for native births have not always been registered. It is stated that it is rare for multiple births of more than two children to occur among dark-skinned peoples. Indeed, it is most unusual in any race, and Dr. T. M. Fitzgerald, who attended .the Ohangai babies, stated that the incidence of triplets is only one in 6000 births, according to British Empire statistics.