MAORI CONTINGENT

GRAVE RISK FROM DISEASE. (|* TELEGRAPH PKESS ASSOCIATION.) , AUCKLAND, 17th September. Grave risks will be taken in forming the contingent of Maori volunteers, according to a statement made in an interview by the District Health Officer, Dr. Makgill.. He declared that typhoid fever has been so widespread among the Native population this winter that the gathering of a large number of Maoris will almost certainly result in an epidemic of the disease. Dr. Makgill stated that during the present winter typhoid has been rife among the Maori people of the Auckland province and in parts at least of the Wellington province. There are very few Native settlements in the Auckland province that have escaped a visitation, and in some places the disease has been very severe. In July forty cases of typhoid were notified, thirty of them being Maoris, and in August there were forty-three Maori gases in* a total of sixtythree notified. The habits of the Maoris are such, said Dr. Makgill, that even with the strict supervision of a military camp it would be very difficult to prevent the spread of infection. Even if medical examination were able to eliminate the natives sickening for the disease, there always remains the danger of " carriers ' ' — persons who have recovered from the disease, but in whose bodies the bacilli still persist and are discharged from time to. time. "Carriers" are known to have been the cause of many epidemics. They are extremely difficult to detect, as the infection is not always apparent to examination. It is certain that a, number of "carriers" would be included in any contingent formed of Maoris, and it would be extremely dangerous to collect a couple of hundred Natives in one camp or in one ship. Asked whether there was not a similar risk of " carriers " creating an epidemic in the Main Expeditionary Force, Dr. Makgill explained that a very much larger proportion of Maoris has suffered from the disease than in the white population. Not only was the risk of " carriers " in white troops much less, but the latter were better protected by the fact that their habits were not so conducive to the spread of infection. Dr. Makgill agreed that inoculation would probably protect the Natives, but it would not destroy the • danger of "camel's."