DYSENTERY OUTBREAK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20235, 20 April 1929, Page 16

DYSENTERY OUTBREAK.

sir _l consider that an injustice has licen 'done to tho Maori people in blaming the hui at Ngaruawahia for tho appearance and dissemination of dysentery 1 rovious to the hui, dysentery was not epidemic either in Ngaruawahia or in the Waikato. It broke out subsequently, ce tainlv, but to assume straight away that the hui was to blame, is a P atellt lacv The report of tho Auckland Hospital shows that the same form of dysentery had been, and was at the_ time of the hui, widely prevalent in Auckland, so much so that hospital accommodation was strained. Several thousands of people from Auckland, an infected area, visited our'regatta, many of whom may have been carriers of tho disease, lhe Maoris would have quite as much ground for accusing the pakehas of giving thern the disease, as the latter have of accusing the Maoris. I am informed that there have been no cases of the disease among the natives permanently residing at the Ngaruawahia pa, which does not look like defective sanitary conditions there. During tho hui an officer of the Health Department resided permanently in the pa, and saw that all sanitary arrangements were duly carried out. I am writing in justification of our Maori friends, who have apparently had tho blame laid upon them without due inquiry. "Blame the Maori" seems to be the motto every time j we get an epidemic. Justice.