NATIVES’ BAD TEETH

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 253, 23 July 1935, Page 6

NATIVES’ BAD TEETH

“Most Tahitians Have the Front Ones Missing”

Seemingly widely held opinions that all South Sea Island natives are the possessors of strong, white teeth ''’ erc contradicted ou the arrival in Wellington yesterday of the San Francisco mail liner Makura by Air. A. G. Slewart, of Sydney, who lias charge ot the Polynesian and Alela.nesian missions of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Mr. Stewart has been visiting Papeete for the Seventh Day Adventists’ Australian and New Zealand conference. He remarked that the Tahitians seemed to have left their ancient native diets and to have taken to soft imported and prepared foods, such as the white bread cooked by the Chinese bakers. “One sees 75 per cent, of the natives nowadays with their front teeth out,’ he said. “They are a nice race, a kind and very responsive people, and it is a pity that there is not some form of dental inspection carried out. When the Tahitians drink tea—and they now drink plenty of it—they put three or four spoonfuls of sugar in the cup.”