LIFE ON CHATHAM ISLANDS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25022, 2 November 1946, Page 10

LIFE ON CHATHAM ISLANDS

Conditions Said To Be Deplorable CRITICISM BY MEDICAL OFFICER A picture of deplorable conditions on the. Chatham Islands —low standards of living, bad housing, poor dietary, poor amenities of nearly all types, and immorality and general antisocial activities—was given by the resident medical officer (Dr. G. T. Davies) when he was interviewed by a reporter of “The Press” who accompanied visiting the islands by the Sunderland flying-boat. Mataatua, this week. Dr. Davies emphasised that his remarks applied not to all. but to tfie bulk of the native residents, who. he said, formed the majority of the pontdation Although he has had only a year on the islands, Dr. Davies, who has earned some repute as a crusader for better conditions, has had the advantage of the sole doctor’s close contacts with the islanders in his* attempt to make an accurate analysis of existing conditions. A number of other officials seen during the visit declined to have their names used with statements critical of the islanders, but they expressed agreement with many of Dr. Davies’s remarks.

Dr. Davies said that rhe present population was about 450. two-thirds or more being natives. 'The 1945 census gives the population as 505. comprising 290 Europeans and 215 Maoris, but officials believe this classification to be inaccurate and cite that there were many instances where within a family one brother would classify himself as a European and the other brother would classify himself as Maori of this total about 250 were children under 10, and 130 of them attending school.)

Lack of Amenities Tne figure of 450, Dr. Davies said, represented a decline of about 30 per cent, since the census of 1936, and the reasons ft* the decrease were the closing of the Owenga fishing industry and a migration of young people to the mainland. The migration was the outcome of lack of opportunities and, more especially, lack of such features, desirable for adolescents, as pictures, social life, religion and everyday amenities. He regarded the Year Book’s classification of the population as mostly Maori as incorrect, and stated that there were only seven purebloaded Maoris, the rest being (apart from the few resident Europeans) a mixture of Maori. Moriori and European. He mentioned the point, he said, es it might explain some of the attitudes which caused difficulty on the islands. It was an interesting feature and a contrast from the usual case, to find a tendency to discount white blood, and to find half-castes, quarter-castes and eighth-castes anxious to establish native (Maori) blood and claim Maori rights. The social amenities were hopelessly inadequate, said Dr. Davies. There were, still no formed roads, travel being mainly by horseback. There was no electricity, except for a few properties owning private plants. Communications with the mainland were quite inadequate. There was no sewerage system (neither the doctor’s residence, nor, as far as he knew, any other, possessed even a septic tank) As for formal social life, there were five or six dances a year, a race meeting, a few games of football, and this year there had been a boxing contest —all quite insufficient for the people’s needs.

Housing and Hygiene Dr. Davies said that in spite of his experience of East Coast and Bay of Plenty conditions he was compelled to say that the housing on the Chathams was the poorest he had seen. Native houses in most cases were hovels with a few sticks of furniture, candle-lit, badly-ventilated, sometimes leaky, without baths, without latrines, small and overcrowded. Families were usually large—he knew of 16 with more than 10 children in each, and in one family there were 17 children. In one house, six small children slept in three single beds in a room eight feet by eight feet without window ventilation. Inter-breeding, he said, was astonishing. In one school of 39 children, for instance, one girl was related to 37 of the others, as aunt or as first or second cousin. If this were at all representative of conditions in the last 100 years it must be a big factor in feeble-mindedness, of whjch there appeared to be an undue incidence. The dietary was also bad, he said. The main diet was meat and potatoes, augmented sometimes by swan eggs and flounders. In spite of the pleadings and advice of successive medical officers, no effort, with one exception, had been made to grow other vegetables and fruit, and even potatoes, once planted, were ignored till cropped. In a good vear potatoes would be rotting everywhere, and in a bad vear the people went without or imported at high prices. The land was highly s?rtile, yet a big family might do without milk all winter through sheer laziness or through indifference in arranging calving. Labour and Social Security The numerical superiority of the native islanders. Dr. Davies said, had led to a regrettably antipathetic attitude to the pakeha. tending to make them demand the highest of European public servants without any attitude of reciprocal service. This was manifest especially at times in the withholding of labour w&nted by the Europeans. or the ’ withholding of supplies of such commodities as meat, butter and eggs if the European had incurred the natives' displeasure. In his opinion. the,position of school teachers and of the staff of the Radio-Post Office and of other officials was most difficult as a result of this primitive attitude, and it had been a disillusionment to him to find that even he and his predecessors, in spite of the nature of the services they rendered, had been included in this attitude. Native labour and supply difficulties, he said, had unfortunately been increased through some individual breadwinners ceasing all wtffk .and living on the social security and family benefit systems known respectively as “easy money’’ and “stallion money.” The only criticism of the systems he' intended in this respect, however, was that expenditure of the moneys was not controlled. In the Chatham Islands, where the cost of living was not high, these moneys went mainly into the hotels. It was his estimate that perhaps £IOO a week was spent on liquor in the two hotels Liquor and Immorality Alcohol was, of course, as elsewhere with some individuals a curse, Dr Davies said. The problem in the islands was the greater, as there was virtually no recreation of other meeting place in common use There was evidence that in some cases more than 50 per cent, of a man’s income went into alcohol, and there was also a difficult problem in the right of an individual to carry away beer or spirits on his person. The price demanded for a botfle of beer was 2s 9d. and spirits commanded a fabulous price

In recent years, he said, the islanders had developed a penchant for parties lasting all night, and a wedding or a tangi had become the excuse for at least three days’ debauchery. In the small, crowded shacks already described small children were thus brought into the atmosphere of drunkenness, smoking, and immorality at the earliest ages. Dr. Davies said that the evidence he had encountered of sexual and efther anti-social aberrations was disquieting. In the last few years the records showed eight incestuously-conceived children. The rate of illegitimacy was high, and there was a' steady in* cidence of children born through adultery. Such things appeared to be known and generally accepted by the people. Wife-beating was apparently frequent, but because of misguided island loyalty ohly one »*ctirn had been persuaded by him «to make a statement to the police The incidence of illegal carnal knowledge was also high, and its frequency was undoubtedly related to the general living conditions already described He could, he said, recite numerous examples of deplorable ignorance and want of sense of decency and of appreciation of fnora] values, demanding educative and other forms of intervention and control Lack of Religious Knowledge Even the churches said Dr. Davies, apparently felt they had a thankless task. There were three churches, including a Catholic and an Anglican church, but to the best of his knowledge there had been no minister in the islands for months nor were regular church services conducted by the one Maori lay reader When ministers had been present formerly, he said, he believed they had had the discouraging task of preaching to the smallest of congregations comprising mostly members of a few resoonsible families. At present however, there was virtually no effective church or religious teaching. Tn Court, for instance. he had seen children and their mothers completely unable either to identify or to recognise the Bible. Dr Davies said that he )kn*»w the problem of the Chatham Islands was an extremely complex one to tackle, but there was surely some way to improve the educational facilities, provide more money and eouioment (including a cinema projector) organise more youth activities, and perilous see to the appointment of a full-time child welfare officer. He expressed approval of the 29 miles’ reading project about to be commenced by the Public Works Dcr»a»-trnenf and said h«* would also support anv move fbr the better general amenities and services needed bv the is’ands.