IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC MIND.

ECONOMIC ILLS. EFFECTS ON THE MAORIS. (To the Editor.) May I support Mr. B. W. Matthew's protest, in yonr issue of the 28th inst., against the various humiliating and derogatory expressions appearing in the Press of late anent the status of the Maori people. Thesfe regrettable diatribes have special reference to that unfortunately too large section of the Maori people placed "on sustenance," or on relief work. These are people who are enmeshed in the continuing economic ills of these times. To subsist, they are obliged to apply for and accept the relief conditions offered. Under the late Government, as a matter of fact, and "as a matter of policy," the Maori worker was paid at a lower rate than pakehas similarly placed. The present Government has justly rectified that and other grave wrongs to many innocent people. During the past century or so, we have striven (rightly or wrongly) to persuade the Maori to give up hie old communal system of village life. Under that regime, with all ite faults, there was no such thing as unemployment and all the ills that to-day flow from it. Accepting this call to aspire to pakeha standards and in adopting pakeha methods of earning his livelihood as a wage earner, the Maoris have in their thousands abandoned the old kainga life, following up in various spheres of life vocations offered under the pakeha system. We now find him as a shearer, bushman, farmhand, etc. These Maoris have proved highly efficient workers and in demand wherever employment is available. They command high wages for good work given in return. Let us not forget that N>w Zealand's progress and prosperity owes much to Maori labour and industrial efficiency and will continue so indebted to the indefinite future. Xow, when times turned bad, and the dearth of employment came, thousands of these Maori workers became the victims of the pakeha economic system imposed upon ihem. Yet it is a fact that we denied them the automatic right to participate in relief works. For the Maori has to apply '"permit" to be eligible as a relief worker. That application goes through a series of Government departments. a procedure which takes weeks, and indeed months, to finalise. When, and if, at last a "permit"' is happily granted, the fortunate applicant, until recently, was placed on a wages or sustenance scale at a materially lower level than the pakeha worker. That particular discrimination as to Maori wage level is now justly abolished (as the result of happenings in November, 1935). That Maoji relief workers and their families have not benefited by this improvement in their wages standard is manifestly untrue, for on all sides there is evidence to the contrary. Many stringent conditions due to low pay rates have passed away, and Maori family life generally is much improved as the direct result. GEO. GRAHAM. INFANTILE PARALYSIS. In Saturday's issue of the "Star" I notice a short but interesting letter on "Infantile Paralysis." To many of of us it must force home the fact that Dr. E. S. Dukes was' on the right track when he published his work on the subject in 1925, in which he links up infantile paralysis with meningitis. At anv rate his system of treatment w:g a wonderful success. So long as the profession attribute the cause of disease to a germ, medical science will remain stagnant, and conflicting opinions will continue to exist one against the other. The orthodox school of medicine has been' compared to an unroofed temple, cracked at the sides, and rotten at the foundation. When it accepts the tfceorg all disease ia the effect of one • and therefore requires one remedy it would then be that death.wonlilbe with us only as a result of accident or old age. ' T. W. PERRETT. .J . a . m amazed at none of the medical authorities advocating shoes or sandals bein" worn as well as hate a* a prevention of the epidemic now prevalent in Dunedin. Bare feet, I m sure, are the cause of the multitudinous ailments New Zealand children fall prey to. and all the children I know who have had infantile paralysis have all been allowed to run barefooted. During the war I remember hundreds of men in Xew Zealand being unable to pass the doctors through flat feet. How manv children who have been without shoes all dayare bathed and put to bed sweet and clean? Xot 10 per cent of them, I'm sure, and what are their beds but hotbeds of germs and splendid breeding grounds? EX-NURSE. I have just read that the first case of infantile paralysis has reached Auckland thronpli contact with people from Dunedin; al>n that the Auckland cricketers are playing a match there. Will the health authorities take precautions on their return that they do not come into contact with the public? AXXIOUS MOTHER. RANGITOTO DOMAIN. The Minister of Lands, the Hon. F. Langstone. is rather severe on the Rangitoto Domain Hoard •for its action in allowing shacks to be built on the island. The Hon! Minister would be better advised to criticise the Department of Agriculture for having allowed the establishment of commercial apiaries 011 this unique domain. During a recent visit to the island I was crediblv informed that the Department named had licensed two commercial apiaries and that a third is about to be established. What a howl there would be if a Government Department licensed commercial apiaries in the Auckland Domain! Swarming bees are a greater menace to Motors than noxious Weeds will be to th« ,sland " A. J. HENRY. THE NEW 2YA. It is to be hoped the Government has better success with the new Wellineton tranljitter than it has had with the ~ new - IYA. 1 l ' le trumpet blowing reganile.-s 1:11aml l'fied reception f„ Hr mile* f rom H-M.de.son is i* M twice that of the old station at Auckland. more than 12 n.iles away! This is about ,1 °" anv ""amplified receiver ir. [t le district. Of course, one does not expect to get lO times the old volume; but such an increase 111 power should more than double the range, surely? It seems to me that it would be moie truthful to give the current expected or actually obtained in the aerial as the rating of the transmitter. AERIAL CURRENT PLEASE. RACEGOERS AND RAIN. Soaking M et" will not get anvwhere if he appeals to racing clubs to give better shelter for people on the outer. Probably appeals have been made continually for 80 years, but to no effect. The only way open is to organise for better condit I 11s on the racecourses. Tli.» Xew Zealand Turf Association (Queen Street 1 has been formed with this object in view. Some o: the reforms suggested are. (4) no exploitation of the public in booths and ha -. (7) stands for sheltering patrons in wet weather, especially 011 the outer. (K) rcdnc-cd charges for admission to race-curse-. RACEMOSES. Anti-sustenance.— Will the writer of the letter signed Anti-sustenance published ]a>t month forward his address to the editor.—Ed.