The Daily News MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26. SAVE THE MAORI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8056, 26 February 1906, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26. SAVE THE MAORI.

Htnv Las New Zealand lullilled the sacred duty imposed on lit*r, to protect and preserve the native race of these islands ? Most readers w ill have read of tile speedy extermination of thcTasmanian aboriginals of Australia. From time to tunc humanitarians, have, in comparing the .Native policies of Mew Zealand with those of the Australian States, extolled the wise and benelicient policy of the colony, and most of us have really commenced to believe thai the praise was merited. What a delusion! Theoretically, no doubt, New Zealand has intended lo do that which was right by the Aluori people, but how little has been actually accomplished. The Maori lias survived extinction, not because of the guardian interest taken in bun by the Governments of the Colony, but by reason alone of his splendid physical aud mental constitution, aud in spite of one of the most pusillanimous policies ever hutched. Does anyone believe that the fate of the natives of this fair laud would have been one whit different from that of the Australian aborignals, had they been of as inferior a human order ? They would have been almost extinct to-day as the 1110 a, for all the inlluence the JS'ative policy of the Colony would have had oil arresting their decay. Is there any single reason why this .should be so ? and is there any justification for the oft-repeated pessimistic assertion, that the Maori is doomed to extinction f Ask the medical man who is conversant with, the Maori race and you will get but one

auswer—" .No." Tke Mauri is built of material, lliiit with cure and attention, lits liim lo lake his jilacc as a race iu Ike ranks of the highest civilisation. It has bceu said that civilisation degrades tlio many to exalt tke few. Applied to our natives, how true ! " Civilisation depends on morality," wrote Kmmcrsou, ami be wrote tbc trutli. Teaeli tke Maori a higher standard of true morality—ancl it should never be forgotten that his standard has fallen because of his associations with Europeans— and ,he will live. Unfortunately those in high places are so prone to accept the extinction of the native nice as inevitable, that the people, naturally, have unthinkingly accepted and believed the statements. They don't pause lo think why it is that the race is deteriorating physically and numerically. Did they but do so, and realise, as they assuredly would, that it is due to their own awful neglect, there would be aroused such a revulsion of feeling as would compel immediate attention. The Maori is dying because be is disease-ridden; disease-ridden because of his association with Europeans. Typhoid, scarlet fever, consumption, and unmentionable diseases contracted from Europeans—we are ashamed to admit —are lirst among the causes decimating a noble

race. There is scarcely a Maori settlement iu Taranaki, where typhoid fever is not practically endemic. I'arthaka, notably, is a hotbed ot insidious disease, lying dormant perhaps, Imt what. ail awful menace to tin- whole community of this district! We allinn unhesitatingly that the disease which exists amongst the Maoris to-dav, constitutes a standing menace to Taranaki. Think of it, you mothers. The poor Maori wahinc who regularly visits your back-doors to trade her vegetables or the product of her handiwork, and around whose skirts your children curiously play, may have just left a wharc recking with disease. There is death in her visit. How often may she have told you of her ailing piccaninny, or of its death . ? Doctors will tell you that diptheria and bronchitis are responsible for ninelenths of the few cases of death amongst the Maori children thai come under their immediate notice. The Maori mother does not know ; she lias not the natural instinct of the European mother to diagnose a complaint that is not of her people. What is being done to teach her, and to save her children ? Well may the c|uestion he asked. ,\ew Zealand is spending something like .C;io,ntii) a year on a Health Department. I low much of that large sum is being honestly spent in the amelioration of the health of the Maori? Some little* time ago a Maori doctor was appointed to inspect the conditions of his people, and ijuite recently another has been appointed. Their tield of operations is the whole of iS'ew Zealand, and the Cook ami Chatham Islands. What real improvement, in the name of common sense, can the Government hope to accomplish from the lectures of two peripatetic native doctors, however capable ? The Maori, in certain localities are virtually dying like rats, and the collective wisdom of the

Government anticipates arresting the mortality by appointing two young native doctors! By the time their teachings have commenced to take effect, the Maori will be ail insignili-

cant quantity—" rara homo in terris." The commendable feature of these appointments, however, is thai it is an evidence that the Government has in a measure realised its duly, and whether unwillingly or not, had , commenced a work, which, if amplilicd and vigorously prosecuted, will save llie Maori race. What is ; wanted is constant, regular and strict medical supervision. The Government claim to have provided medical attention for the Maoris, What is it A medical mail is retained—we believe there is one, I)r McClelaud, for the whole of Northern anil Western laraiiiiki—to treat Maoris who visit the surgery. Humane, isn't il. l'or

11 lull service, ami it is no sinertit'e, euiisidrrably less than CIDO a year is p:iitl. For less than CIOO a year (lie enlightened people of this eolony complaten! ly liL'lieVd they are providing jinediral attention and .oinforts for over two thousand natives! There musl In l ;ui end to sueh a scandalous stale of affairs. The 'Maori may be saved in become a aud numerically strong factor in the community, if we strike at the root of his trouble, and the root is disease. At present

we are wa-ting valuable time loving auav al llie uppermost branches. The State must lie compelled to provide medical supervision of I lie Maori, equally as it is .-lssnming (lie function cif safeguarding llie health of the white community. When I lint has been done, and competent and experienced medical men. uiiiler the coulrol of the State Health Department, have fairly commenced their work, I lion, and not till then, will there be any practical use for the native girl nurses whom the Government propose to train. The Maori is very amenable, aud us buou as lie realises

that he is under a constant supervisian that is working for his own salvation, he will eagerly assist in realising the aims of his benefactors. AW' are assured by medical men that sucli a policy would speedily slay the ravages of the diseases that at present flourish unchecked andunattendedinthc Maori pahs, would save hundreds of infant lives that at present arc annually sacrificed through ignorance, and would remove from our midst a standing menace to the health of the whole community. Let the people of Taranaki raise a united protest against the present condition of affairs, and insist that the Health Department should lie put to practical use in the wav we have indicated, anil it will speedily be realised what poor prophets are those who philosophically preach the extinction of the Maori. Not even those pessimists woti'.d deny that he is worth saving. Spate will not permit of

further dilation on the subject at present, although much remains lo be said, especially as to how the Maori might be made to help himself, to save his . substance, aud re-attaiu his natural self-reliance, were it not- for the absurd policies that have been followed by the , various Governments in their dealings with native affairs. These errors, however, are not irreparable, and it is not too late to iitone for the mistaken policies of the past.