OF WHAT ACCOUNT?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1100, 12 April 1911, Page 8

OF WHAT ACCOUNT?

OUR -CAEE OP THE .MAORIS. . "The New Zealand Government requires the registration of dogs,". writes a correspondent, "but insists on no recoiil of the number of Maori births and deaths." • The correspondent leads up to this statement with a very important, though distressing, case ,wh,ich recently came, under his notice. He says that a medical man was called (in the Ta'ranaki district) jto see a'youngT'3taori>"woinan at a [)ah, and on arriving there found the patient very ill. As she could- not speak Mnglish, a lady missionary who was prosent translated. The .trouble was that there had been an abscess in the region of the neck, which had spread upwards, and an operation was necessary. As the place was small and dirty and Rood nursing not procurable, the only thing to do was to send her to the nearest hospital—and here the trouble arose. The immediate relatives did not. want a medical man at all, and it was only on account of the lady missionary Hint they had agreed to call one in before they put the ; patient under the care of one of the tohungas. The correspondent had a talk to tho people, there, and, amongst other things, told them that if the girl was not sent to the hospital he would report the whole thing to the police. This statement, he fancied, amused them more than anything else, and when tho lady missionary explained to him that thfc girl could be taken out of the doctor's care and could die • and be buried and no notice needed to be given to tho Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, he began to understand. vEyenhially the girl went to the hospital, where an operation was performed, and her life saved. The correspondent had been fold that. a Maori chief had died with much the same symptoms the same week, and that no notice had been takeen. On inquiry of the Native Minister and Government medical authorities recenty a reporter of The Dominion learned that , it is cdrrect that no registration is required by law of the births and deaths of Maoris. .. It: seems, however,, that the Government has become, lately, "cognisant of tho laxity that this fact suggests, for only a few days ago it was decided by Cabinet io bring the cafe of the Maoris under the direct charge of tho Health Department, of which Dr. Valintine is the bead. It may bo inferred that this is a step towards remedying the present disgraceful state of affairs, and instituting a proper system of record o£ both births and .deaths. Tho whole health question of the Native race is also, it is understood, to be gone into fully. . ' .