MORTALITY AMONG NATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1919, Page 6

MORTALITY AMONG NATIONS.

EUROPEAN CLOTHING BLAMED. Many of the Native people in the Pacific are dying off, some more rapidly than others; and variosa .reasons are given for this sad fact. In the opinion of Mr 11. S. Newton, a Government official from the Gilbert Islands, who was recently in Sydney 011 furlough, nothing has contributed more to the general decay than the introduction of European clothing. In most of the islands cotton smocks for women and cotton trousers and shirts for men liave eome to be regarded in the native mind as indispensable to professed Christianity It is impossible, Mr Newton declares, to overestimate the mischief that has been done to the general physique and health of the natives of the" Gilbert Islands by European clothing. The old method of lubricating the body (bare save for a kilt) with cocoanut oil was the best possible precaution against chill in these regions of sudden rains. Clothes reduced the endurance of the skin, and rendered it more susceptible to the chills which wet clothing engendered. The result was that colds, pneumonia and eventually tuberculosis, decimated the natives 111 many parts. Apart from this aspect, the natives did not understand the principles of hygiene, and thus skin diseases were spread, for the natives were fond of exchanging and borrowing each other's clothing.