WHY MAORI BABIES DIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 194, 18 August 1931, Page 6

WHY MAORI BABIES DIE.

The statistics regarding the high rate of mortality amongst Maori babies and mothers given to the Akarana Native Association are certainly disquieting. Yet knowing the race well, I cannot think the abolition of the Maori hygiene branch is altogether a contributing cause. Surely it is time the Maori abandoned the continual cry of ignorance and left off clamouring for more supervision and help. A determined effort to practise what they have been taught would certainly result in many lives being saved, 100 frequently children's lives are lost not because of ignorance but because it is easier to drift along than carry out the nurse's instructions about suitable food. All Maori girls now attend school until they are at least fourteen years old, while many continue longer at various lliey are all taught the rules of health, and in the majority of cases learn something about the care of babies. Leaflets printed in Maori and giving advice about the feeding of infants and the treatment of simple ailmente have been widely distributed by the Health Department. Every district with any considerable native population has its nurse for natives, who constantly visits the settlements. Her services arc available to all free of charge. She attends cases of sickness in the homes demonstrating the methods of preparing suitable food and the treatment to be given the patient. As it is still the custom for everyone who can to gather at the patient's home, the nurse takes the opportunity to instruct all who are willing to learn. Too often her audiences are indifferent, quite content to continue in their own shiftless ways. When sickness comes, however, they demand her immediate attention, but want her to effect a cure with no inconvenience to the patient or themselves. The custom of allowing children to do exactly as they please makes the task of dieting them when ill impossible. A wee chap suffering from a severe attack of dysentery was making a big fight for life. Doctor and nurse were doing all that skill could suggest, while tho mother, a splendid girl, braved the older women's disapproval of modern methods, and seconded their efforts. However, a woman stepped in with a cup of orange juice under her apron, gave it to the child, and next day another little grave was needed. How often 'is the tin of red-hot embers stood by the sick infant's bed and the window tightly "closed once the nurse is out of sight. One day I went to see a small boy, and, noticing a bottle half empty, said to hie mother, ''I see Pua is taking his medicine." "Oh, no," was the reply, "he doesn't like." Then in a further burst of confidence, "I just pour him outside a bit every day not to make the nurse angry.' Another cause of the high death rate is, I think, the early marriages the Maoris encourage. Boys and girls In their early teens are married regardless of their physical fitness and with no prospect of tho young husband being able to provide for a wife and family. The offspring of these immature and often unhealthy parents are foredoomed to an early death. The real tragedy from a race point of view would be their survival. There are number.* of Maoris who do benefit by the help given by the Health Department and who prove capable of acting sensibly when their children are ill, but there arc also numbers who are careless, idle and dirty. When deaths are the result of neglect in following instructions from doctor or nurse, surely the matter should be followed up and a charge of manslaughter brought. —E.L.