Daughter Injured By “Island Method”

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30892, 27 October 1965, Page 6

Daughter Injured By “Island Method”

(Neto Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Oct. 26.

A Western Samoan woman who used what she describes as a “customary island method” to teach her two-year-old daughter to walk caused bone abnormalities described by a child specialist as the worst she had ever seen, Detective-Sergeant J. Sheehan told the police court today.

He was prosecuting Mese Tanoa’i, aged 27. a laundryhand, who admitted wilfully neglecting Apapai Elizabeth Tanoa’i in a manner likely to cause injury to her health.

Mr H. Jenner Wily, S.M., convicted and remanded her in custody to November 9 for a probation report and sentence. He also called for a medical report to determine whether the child was ever likely to recover from the abnormalities. Mr Sheehan said that a doctor called to another of the children had noticed that the two-year-old was suffering from malnutrition and had her admitted to hospital. There it was found that she was also anaemic, was suffering from pneumonia and weighed only 171 b 7oz, instead of the normal 271 b to 291 b for a child of that age. Arms Fractured She had difficulty in moving her limbs and an examination revealed that she was suffering from fractures of both arms, at the shoulders and both legs at the hips and that the bones had grown back out of their normal positions. The mother said she had had difficulty teaching the child to walk, so on four occasions had buried her up to her thighs in the earth then pulled her out by the shoulders. Twice the child had been stuck so fast that it had been necessary to dig her free.

Tanoa’i claimed that the method was in accordance with island custom. She said she had not obtained medical assistance for the child because she did not want her husband to know what she had been doing. The child was now in the care of the Crippled Children Society. Tanoa’i had training as a nurse before she came to New Zealand, Detective-Sergeant Sheehan said.