NATIVES AND CONSUMPTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10138, 16 January 1911, Page 4

NATIVES AND CONSUMPTION.

Our local contemporary taices to itself the credit for the discovery that the Natives of this district are being decimated by consumption, and, in spite of the emphatic declaration of Dr Pomare on the subject, persists in urging tho establishment of a consumptive home in the district. Not the slightest effort has been made to show that the Natives of the Wairarapa are in a worse condition than elsewhere. (Dr Pomare says clearly that they are not). No attempt has been made to justify the implied assertion that this district is unhealthy, and that the Native population has been grossly neglected. The only excuse offered for the absurd proposal to erect a consumptive sanatorium in the neiglaxmrhood of Masterton is that the Natives arp, vf&iher too poor >to;-ayail the existing sanatoria, or that- they are averse to isolation. It need hardly be said that the Charitable Aid Board: is. willing at. all times to assist, .those wliO ; are^ 1 * ' penurious, so that the plea of expense .need jiot enter into the discussion. Andj; as to the aversion to isolation, it;; would apply as much to a home ; in Masterton as to sanatoria in Cam-' bridge or- elsewhere. If- our con-temporary-wishes to further damage :the reputation of the district, or to introduce a menace to the health of the community, it will continue its agitation for the provision of a home for consumptives in our midst.