MAORI TANGIS AND DISEASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15358, 21 July 1913, Page 4

MAORI TA NGIS AND DISEASE.

-uAUttl LAiMjriO AiMJ XJLOJOjiYOrj. —Owing to the death of a native here lately we had a tangi for a week or more, and Maoris collected from all the surrounding districts, including Mangatautiri and Waharoa, where chicken-pox is supposed to be. These people mixed with the children in the pa, and then the children would attend school and sit side by side with the European children. To prevent this we have closed the school. To make matters worse, they kept the corpse until the ninth day. The sanitary arrangements are conspicuous by their absence, and to my mind are a disgrace to civilisation. The above case is very mild compared to what happened last year when a local native died somewhere down Te Puke way. The corpse was placed in an ordinary coffin, and was carted all over the place for two weeks for a travelling ! tangi, and was then put in the guard's van on the railway, and arrived at Matamata station and brought out here to be kept another week to tangi over here, making three weeks in all, during the hot season. To put an end to the practice would also be doing the .Maoris a ,good turn, as j after the tangi last year they jvere left j

with very short supply of food to see the winter through. To give you an instance. . One Maori woman had three tons of potatoes before the feast, but had not enough left for seed after. Some people seem to think it would be a very hard matter to deal with owing to the fact of it being an ancient custom. To my way of thinking nothing would be easier. I would simply bring them in line with the pakeha, and make it a punishable offence, to keep the body above ground more than three days. If the Minister in charge of native affairs would do this, I think there would bo little to complain about. In conclusion, I would like to say that after each tangi held here there has been sickness in the pa. C. R. Tapper. Okauia, Matamata, July 15, 1913.