THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1931. HEALTH IN THE PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1931. HEALTH IN THE PACIFIC.

A mission of medical experts, sent out by the League of Nations, has L reported on the health of certain island peoples of the Pacific. The work undertaken is related to the general a survey of world-wide health condit tions being conducted by the League from year to year, but this particular task was accepted at the request of the health administrations in what is generally styled the AustralPacific zone, roughly corresponding to the Melanesia of the geographers. Its area ranges from eastern New Guinea to Fiji, and includes the British territory of Papua, the part of New Guinea and adjacent islands now under Australian mandate, the British Solomon Islands, the condominium of the New Hebrides, the French group embracing New Caledonia and its dependencies, and the British colony of Fiji. The request was made at a Melbourne conference of these administrations held four years ago, and in October of 1928 the mission left Sydney on its first journey of investigation. What is now reported is the result of fully expert and very patient inquiry. In general, the conclusions represent the whole body of facts in the South Pacific, its Polynesian as well as Melanesian regions. As a matter of fact, these regions merge in Fiji. Generalisation, of course, is always beset with risk, especially where statistical information has not been gathered, and cannot be gathered, as in a longsettled European community occupying a small area. Even Melanesia is a relatively vast and varied field of inquiry, and the whole of the South Pacific offers further variety as well as still greater extent. Nevertheless, as the investigation proceeds, certain broad facts emerge as characteristic of the experiences of all the island peoples. They share a common background of development, and though they are not all at the same stage of contact with an invading civilisation their reactions to it are practically identical. One fact to which the report makes reference is that of an earlier and considerable depopulation. Last century was full of a dirge about "the passing of the native." Up to 1890, at all events, there was a general decline in numbers.- A collation of the impressions of voyagers, the reports of traders, and the figures furnished by missionaries, gives proof sufficient concerning the first half of the century. This has confirmation in the returns collected by administrators in the latter part of the period. The causes were various. Sir William MacGregor's words to chiefs of Fiji in 1885 were "I believe the people are dying from these causes : first, bad houses ; second, insufficient food ; third, uncleanness of towns and bad water; fourth, neglect of women, children and the sick." Into that framework can be fitted the'details with which every succeeding survey by qualified observers made the world familiar a generation ago. Neglect of child life, prevalence of filth diseases, ignorance . of hygiene and bondage to superstition all played their terrible part, more terrible than the slaughter of inter-tribal wars. Depopulation was general, , rapid and seemingly inevitable.

European influence, which threatened to add fatally to these causes of decline, has been but slowly catching up on the task made heavier by its; first contacts. To the frequent native lament heard in some islands was given a new and even sadder note. It was not that "blackbirding" and imported * diseases brought new dangers, but that elements in the invading civilisation were subtly undermining native stamina as surely as the evil in former conditions threw down its defences. What happened to the Maori from the introduction of the potato and the blanket—both debited with pernicious effects by those entitled to be heard —has happened elsewhere in the South Pacific in similar fashion. A newlaziness and an unhealthy use of clothes have come w4th tragic consequences. What the League mission reports concerning chest disease is all too seriously true. The 1893 commission of inquiry in Fiji found, for instance, <r that the whole race is much tainted by various forms of tubercle, acquired and inherited," and "that much of their inherent weakness is due to debility brought about by this taint." But a new era has dawned. Depopulation has been checked ; in some groups, an increase is apparent; the medical services, instituted by health organisations and equipped with a knowledge of tropical medicine and means to apply it, have already achieved great things ; even leprosy has been proved amen ible to treatment, and diseases once widely prevalent are being driven out. Best of all, the native is learning to take an intelligent share in these remedial measures. The victory is not completely won anywhere, but the fear of defeat has been lessened where it has not been banished.