MAORI HEALTH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 210, 3 August 1940, Page 6

MAORI HEALTH.

Tile campaign against typhoid fever and tuberculosis among Maoris continues to engage the closest attention of the Health Department, as is shown by the annual report presented to Parliament, which candidly sets out that two. of the major difficulties encountered in the promotion of health among the Natives are housing and correction of diet. Those who are familiar with the subject will agree that, as the report says, the housing of many of the Maori people is still deplorable, but that does not deter the Department in its attack on disease; and while it may be economically impossible to rehouse them, other methods are being diligently pursued. In the southern part of the North Island outbreaks of typhoid are not so common as in areas further north, and the work being undertaken may not receive so much notice, but in the Waikato and elsewhere well conducted inoculation campaigns are in progress, reinforced by other steps. Attention to the ill-balanced diet of the Maori is being given through instruction in the native schools —while it is difficult to alter dietary habits in adults, young Maoris are susceptible to the inculcation of the requisite knowledge—and it is to be hoped that this plan will be extended. Provision for_ special accommodation for Maori tuberculosis patients through hospital boards where there are fairly large numbers of Maori people is also engaging attention, and where such steps are taken it is incumbent upon the Natives to extend the fullest measure of cooperation to ensure treatment in the early stages of the disease. Success for the Department’s campaign would more rapidly be brought about by a wholehearted awakening of the Natives to what is being sought for them.