PREY TO SUPERSTITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20341, 23 August 1929, Page 15

PREY TO SUPERSTITION.

AFFLICTED MAORI WOMAN. PROBLEM FOR AUTHORITIES. [BX TELEGRAI'H. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] TE AROHA, Thursday. Whether an elderly native woman should be allowed to perish on a hillside, in obaewanco of superstitious rites, or bo compulsorily given medical treatment in the Thames Hospital, is a question that has been troubling tho Thames police and medical authorities for over a year. Tho woman concerned lives with her husband at Puriri. For several years she has suffered from a painful internal complaint. When afflicted, her husband, at her especial wish, carries her to a bleak hillside, where for weeks on end sho has lain in all sorts of weather, enduring great agony, until tho pain has passed. The police became interested in tho caso and endeavoured to persuade tho woman to undergo medical treatment. To overcome her objection a doctor, in disguise, examined her superficially, but was unable to make an exact diagnosis.

Medical men stato that she will certainly dio if not removed to a hospital. On tho other hand, tho police, having no power to compulsorily remove her to such an institution, aro concerned at tho possibility of the woman again being seized and dying a lonely death, uncovered, on tho bleak hillside. In the meantime the woman is being attended by the Government nurse for natives.