The Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1905. THE CONDITIONS OF THE MAORIS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8918, 6 November 1905, Page 4

The Star.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1905. THE CONDITIONS OF THE MAORIS.

Delivered every evening by 6 [o'olook in Hawera Manaia, Normanby, Okalawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatnna, Opunake, Otskeho, Manutahl, Alton, HurleyWHe, Patea, and Waverley.

The special report of Dr Pomare, Health Officer to the Maoris, always a valuable feature of the annual Public Health Statement, is summarised and commented upon, very interestingly by a Southern contemporary. True, the doctor's somewhat florid and ambitious style is apt to provoke a good-humored smile. This time he starts off with "Tempus fugit. We find ourselves once more retrospecting. How little one seems to have done I" — and he ends up with the 6apient observation: — "Still forced into Micawberism, I exclaim : 'Truly the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.' " "Tohungaism is a multi-headed Hydra," which must be brought to bay," while the pakeha is rebuked for "casting the Davidian eye on the one pet lamb left the Maori." "Davidian" is distinctly good. Literary foibles apart, however, Dr Pomare's intelligent enthusiasm is wholly admirable, and if the Legislature will only take a hand in the good work we feel sure that •-.us labors for the welfare of the race will not be in vain. Something has already been effected*; there is an appreciable improvement in the sanitary and social conditions of the native population ; but serious obstacles require to tie removed before Teally satisfactory results can be obtained. The .communistic sloth of tue Maori remains the chief difficulty in the way of reform. "In trying to cope with the native question," says the doctor, "we are but picking the leaves of the tree instead of cutting down at the root." That root is communism, with the vices and disabilities it engenders ; and the way to get rid of it is to individualise native. land titles, giving to each man enough land for the subsistence of himself and his family, and thus creating ihat incentive to work which is "the Maori's only avenue to a physical salvation." It will be remembered that Dr Pomare (supported by the Chief Health Officer for the . colony) has advanced the same contentions in each of his previous reporte, and there appears to be no reason to doubt the soundness of his cons.lusionß. He holds that the Maori ■would be better off without any land at all than in a state of "idleness with fat rents and extinction." Individualisation of titles would, for one thing, tend to simplify the housing problem. There has been a welcome improvement in the matter of house accommodation — necessarily leading to better conditions of health and civilisation ; but "one of the greatest difficulties we have to contend with is the non-subdivision of holdings, as the natives Tightly refrain from' building on sections which have not been individualised, fearing that should they build somebody else would get the house

when the sections are allotted."- Tohungaism (as we have seen) is once more reprobated with vigor, though the reference is brief, doubtless owing to the thoroughness with which the subject was treated in last year's report. The curse is still Tife, and Dr Pomare has no hope of a satisfactory change until the Legislature sees fit to institute compulsory registration of deaths. It is difficult to understand why this step is delayed. No doubt the war against michievous superstitution has to be waged warily and comsiderately, but there is a happy mean between violent compulsion and idle complaasaincy, and Government and-. Parliament should try to hit it. Infant mortality is also as prevalent as ever, and the doctor puts in a plea for "good Samaritans in the form of hygienic lady missionaries," who. would instruct Maori mothers in the management of babies. Perhaps thb work is too humble and too near home for 'lady missionaries," most of whom, we believe, prefer India and China. Another urgent requirement ia the training of Maori girls as nurses, the lack being sorely felt during the periodic outbursts of typhoid. "Many deaths would have been avoided during the past year if the services of trained nurses had been available in the native settlements. The custom of too early marriage is another serious evil, obviously affecting the fertility and jeopardising the permanence of the race. "Girls entering their teens" are made to wed beardless youths, with the result that the first two or three children die prematurely, and those who live are helpless, weaklings, prone to consumption and other weaknesses." With a view to checking this deplorable tendency Dr Pomare urges that natives should be compelled by the Legislature to observe an age of consent. The contention, as in the matter of compulsory registration of births, seems to us to be perfectly reasonable. Ifc is satisfactory to note, on the other hand, that drunkenness among the Maoris is on the decrease, though the Health Officer wishes to see more districts brought under the Act preventing Maoris obtaining liquor in bulk. Here is a passage with a grim interest of its own : "The lepers still enjoy rides on the railroad carriages, thanks to the objection of some Auckland agitators who did not care to have them isolated safely on an island in the Auckland Harbor, twelve miles from the city." Dr i Pomare rightly takes a large view of his subject— the health of the Maori— and as usual he has something to' say on educational conditions. "He repeats the pleaelaborated in previous reports— -for the more intelligent instruction of young natives, and especially for the provision of post-educative help, so to speak. He asks that Maori youths should have opportunities of engaging in beneficial pursuits after their education has been completed, that room should be left open for them at the Agricultural College, and that commercial and technical instruction should be more thoroughly supplied. It is also recommended that all native schoolmasters 1 should be placed on the same footing as other teachers and be compelled to show' their certificates and grades before engagement — receiving payment accordingly. We find references to some of these matters in the Report on Native Schools recently issued. As regards handwork, the workshops are stated to be doing very satisfactory work and to be much appreciated in the districts where they are located, but it is admitted that there is room for increased effort in the direction of manual training. "The department still finds a certain amount of difficulty in obtaining suitable openings for boys that prefer apprenticeship to a trade to the ordinary scholarship." Better facilities for training in domestic economy are also required for Maori girls. Adequate differentiation hat not been employed in the- teaching of young Maoris, whose training should, in the' majority of cases, be eminently practical and calculated to rectify racial weaknesses and undesirable tendencies. ' Dr Pomare has more than once had something to say on some of the futilities of Maori education. Regarding the status <.f native schoolmasters, the- Education Department reports that advanced condition's have -made it imperative that, wherever possible, "only persons having experience as teachers, or certificated . teachers, shall be selected to fill vacancies" ; and the difficulty of obtaining such teachers has led to the temporary closing of some of the schools. Appended to Dr Pomare's statement are a number of short reports from native sanitary inspectors, and capital reading they make, written as they are in the approved manner of Maori dithyrambics. Here, for instance, is an extract from the contribution of Waaka Te Huia, sanitary inspector at Dargaville : — Greetings to thee, and may your days be long to be a father and an instructor to your native people throughout the two Islands. You are the guardian of the health of the' remnant of your people. May the Father bless thee in this year of 1905. In regard to the sanitary condition of the Maori pahs- throughout the Councillor District of Wairoa my eyes have seen a great change from the years which have passed. . . . Tangiteroria, Waihinahina, Mouhanga, Ripia, Naumai, Kapehu, Mangakahia, have all been renovated within the last two years. Enough, 0 friend! The thoughts of many of these' people are not, stable. Some are chasing the silly words of the tohunga Wereta. la regard to the houses, many have improved, but many have been side-tracked by the doings of Mahuta and Wereta. 0 friend ! to end up my few words to you I enclose a little table giving you an idea of the whares and their conditions.

One is irresistibly reminded of "In the Name of the Prophet — Figs!" Nevertheless we heartily endorse the compliments paid by Waaka Te JbLuia to Dr Pomare. May he long continue his good work as guardian of the .health of the remnant of his people!