IS IT A DYING RACE?

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1914, Page 5

IS IT A DYING RACE?

COOK ISLANDS PEOPLE WORK OF MEDICAL OFFICERS. FUTURE OF THE ISLANDERS. (BY OL'n SPECHL HEPORTER.) RAROTONGA, 11th June. " The population of these islands ia in a parlous condition,"' said Dr. Baldwin, Chief Medical Officer in the Cook Islands, when interviewed by a pressman. "The birth rate hero in Rarotonga is high — about 40 per 1000 — as compared with 28 or 29 per 1000 in New Zealand, but tho death rate is also very high — well over 30 per 1000 — whereas in New Zealand it is only about 11 per 1000. • " There is excessive mortality among the young children, and I" am inclined to | attribute this to tropical .influences and ignorance on the part of the parents in regard to proper feeding. Wo wish to reduce this death rate, and we want 'to get to work by training the people in matters of hygiene, so that they may properly ventilate their houses, and not permit decaying matter to lie about. TUBERCULOSIS PREVALENT. " There is at present a great deal of tuberculosis in the islands, and that carries off many people. These people now wear European clothing, and live in houses of concrete or timber, with iron roofs and altogether insufficient ventilation, and, of course, diseases of the lungs get a great hold' upon them. The old native houses of reeds and thatch, and the light clothing, were far more healthy, ,ancl if tuberculosis, is to be combated successfully a return to more natural conditions of living is required. " More natural conditions of life, closer observance of hygienic principles, training in the care of children, and precautions against the spread of certain diseases to which these island people are peculiarly susceptible, are the measures which must be undertaken vigorously if we are going to keep this race from disappearing. Superstition and' ignorance now place big difficulties in the way of the proper dissemination of the knowledge which will safeguard their health," concluded the doctor, " but we expect that the new educatiph system will be of great assistance to us in tho future." IS THE RACE DOOMED? There aro many, basing their arguments on great fundamental laws, who say that this race is doomed, and that it will be replaced by a hybrid population. Epidemics of various kinds have swept over tho islands again and again during the last century, the attempts of the natives to adopt European standards of life have been followed by the usual disastrous results — and now, on the various islands, there are only remnants of the teeming populations which Cook found in 1777, and among which the missionaries came fifty years later, i .The natives are a happy, honest, remarkably intelligent race/ and are well worth preserving. They are very fond of children, and the happiest and proudest mother is she who gives to tho community the largest number of little ones. Among the children the proportion of boys is somewhat large— said to bo a sign of a degenerating race — and a number of women are childless owing to the ravages of certain diseases; but in spite of these things there is ground for believing that if the death rate could be reduced this race would take another' lease of life. Hence one sees the force of the argument that, necessary as are thoroughly efficient schools, a thoroughly efficient medical department is still more necessary, for it is no use establishing schools to educate a race unless there is 'a race to educate. Splendid frork has already been done by the medical officers who have been and aro stationed in these islands, but an enormous amount yet remains to be accomplished. Only two doctors are at present maintained in the Cook Islands, and, while they are in constant touch with the natives in Rarotonga, the difficulty of communication with the outlying islands places an enormous handicap upon their work there. An instance of tho kind of thing they have to contend against comes from Atiu, where every family on the islands suffers from syphilis. A doctor, during a brief visit, gave one very sick patient a bottle of medicine which would cost about two shillings in New Zealand. The man took it away, studied it for a while, and then poured most of it among the roots of a little tree. The tree promptly died, and the native smashed the bottle j in his opinion, the doctor was trying to poison him, and the condition of the tree proved it. NEED FOR MORE DOCTORS. So far as the northern islands — Penrhyn, Manihiki, Rakahana, etc. — are concerned, they are practically without medical attention. Most of the lepers in the Cook Islands are maintained at TPenrhyn, where they exist as best they may with the assistance of the more charitable natives and the Resident Agent. There are a few lepers isolated at some of the other islands, where they live under the most miserable conditions. An officer who recently visited some two or three .lepers, isolated on a small islet at Aitutaki, reported that they wero living under the most miserable and wretched conditions; and another responsible officer has not hesitated to say that two lepers who died not long ago, one on Manihiki and one on Rakahanga, literally starved to death. More doctors and better medical facilities are wanted. The Governor received a petition at tho hands of the natives asking that more doctors "be provided. "There are many islands and only two doctors," said His Excellency, " and tho question of obtaining access to all parts of the group is a very difficult one. Your request has my sincere sy/npathy, and it shall bo laid before my Responsible Advisers, who will try to devise some means' whereby tho whole of the Maoris in these islands will receive proper medical attention. As' you no doubt aro aware, it will cost a large sum of money, and the New Zealand Parliament will have to be consulted before anything can be done."