CONDITIONS IN PA

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 67, 12 December 1932, Page 2

CONDITIONS IN PA

Health of Porirua Maoris

“MENACE TO CHILDREN”

Insanitary conditions which are said to prevail at the Porirua Maori pa were discussed some months ago by the Makara County Council. The question was again brought up at Friday’s meeting by the chairman, Mr. E. AVindley, who said that the health of the children attending the Porirua Public School was menaced as a result of their coming in contact with Maori pupils from the pa. Mr. AVindley said that the pa was overcrowded and conditions generally were very insanitary. Such a state of affairs had existed for a long time. AA'ater had been laid on, but it. was of little help. Apart from the inspections by the council’s inspector, nothing had been done. It was the Native Department’s responsibility, and it should attend to the matter. Such a state of affairs was a menace to public health, and he did not thing the council should allow it to continue if it was possible to bring about a change. His own opinion was that the Native Department was not able to do what it would like to do because the money was not available.

There were, Mr. AVindley added, eight cases of tuberculosis in the pa at present, and it was a disgrace that such a state of affairs should continue when the Government was doing, or professing to do, what it could to stamp out the disease. The parents whose children attended the Porirua School deserved consideration. A motion that the council bring the matter under the notice of the Prime Minister was carried, the chairman remarking : "AVe want to go to the head of the Government because it seems to me that that is the only way of bringing about an improvement.”