SCENES FROM MAKOGAI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 280, 25 October 1940, Page 6

SCENES FROM MAKOGAI.

(By P. J. Twomey, the “Leper Man," Christchurch.) Joe Maori passes away.—On Christmas Day last one of the most loved andrespected lepers .passed away in the person of “Joe Maori,” from the North Island. On Christmas Eve .he prepared himself to go to church the next day. But it was too much for him. When ho tried to get up to dress himself with the help of a boy lie found that lie could not do it. Soon after ho became speechless and that was the end. At about 12 o’clock a most delightful smile came over his face and shortly afterwards he breathed his last. He was buried alongside his dear friend “Will,” the blind New Zealand leper from Quail Islamd, Lyttelton. 1. received a letter from ‘.‘Joe” just before the end thanking us and asking for our continued assistance. It may interest you to know that there are 127 patients from New Zealand’s dependencies on this island. Scene on beach.—A • boy from the Cook Islands has just arrived on the beach at Makogai and one of the men patients, seeing him in such - distress, puts his arms around him and 6ays: “It’s alright, son, I will ,be your father and you can share my mat with me.” This scene was enacted in such a pathetic way that even the doctor was moved to tears. Dear reader, you and I have an opportunity to dry the tears of the lepers and bring a little sunshine into the lives of these our brothers and sisters.

Indian baby born.—An Indian woman in an advanced stage of leprosy was discovered in a native village and sent to Makogai. Three months after her arrival she gave birth to-a child perfectly healthy and strong. The child was kept under observation for two years, and being free from the disease was sent away to its father. Altogether there have been about 20 births on the island, and so far only two of the children have contracted the disease from contagion. Mother smuggles baby on to steamer. —A young married woman from the Cook Islands was notified that she was a leper and must proceed to Makogai. She embarked with several parcels and when the boat was far out to sea she produced her only child from, one of the parcels. Her. motherly love was so strong that this poor woman -did not realise the seriousness of .her act. On arrival at Makogai the child was examined and showed no signs of the disease, but as it had come into . close contact with several lepers on the. voyage it was not long before the disease showed itself. This child has now been four years on the island, and although it is still not cured there is every hope of it being so before long. The mother was discharged as cured and left her child to be mothered by Mother the Sister in Charge This weary world of ours is spending millions of pounds every day ’on the destruction of life. May I, i.n God’s name, ask for “a few crumbs from the table” to show your sympathy to those poor suffering lepers, our own brothers and sisters. When the little steamer arrives from Levuka with the New Zealand gifts may your little present be on board to cheer the hundreds of lepers, anxiously watching on the long white beach.