DEATH AND DISEASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 114, 30 September 1912, Page 2

DEATH AND DISEASE.

A SHOCKING STORY. j The Auckland Herald's Taumarnnni > correspondent viaan incident .•iliat' reveals too clearly the pitiful waste of j life that goes 011 among the fine native . race of this eonnlTv. It occurred last | week. Dr. Howard. of Taumarunui, j was directed by the Health Department'! to go to Tawiiata, near the houseboat 1 on the YVanganui river, to visit a Maori j kainga afflicted with sickness. ' .Aeeom- I pauied bv the Rev. d. E. \Vard, Maori j missionary, as interpreter, he went down I by special boat and found a shocking- • states of affairs-existing. Three young J natives, aged, respectively 5, 15 and 17,! had already died, and were 'buried, no j burial certificate being necessary in the case of Maoris, and a number of othersKvere huddled together in a stifling wharo without a chimney, with no ventilation, and with a fire iir a kerosene tin to keep them warm. The first thing the visitors did was to knock a couple , of boards off the roof to admit air, then to throw the kerosene tin with its con- j tents out of doors, the natives mean- j while offering no objection, but, on the ; contrary, assisting them. After this the doctor treated the sick persons with antiseptics, gave them medicine and ad- ' vise, and returned. The native councils established some years ago were 1 expected to see to the health of the ! Maori kaingns, and were permitted to collect certain taxes for the purpose, j The facts recorded above would show that their efforts, if they ever made any, have met with little success.