DISINFECTANT BATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 10

DISINFECTANT BATH

MAORI SCHOOL CHILDREN PROTEST BY FEDERATION [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] ROTOKUA, Monday The methods reported to have been adopted by Dr. Deans, a woman school medical officer, in her treatment of native pupils at the To Kuiti District High School, wero strongly commented upon by delegates at the first executive meeting of the Maori-Pakeha Federation, held in Rotorua at the week-end. The Te Kuiti delegate, who introduced tho matter, said Dr. Dean's actions had caused considerable indignation among tho Maori parents in tho district. When the doctor visited the school recently, said the delegate, in spi to of tho fact that tho district native nurse had paid a visit some days previously and reported that the native children were in satisfactory health and properly cared for, Dr. Deans had ordered that they ho separated from the European pupils and placed in a large bath of disinfectant. No similar action wits taken with the European pupils. This differentiation between the Maori and European children, stated the delegate, had placed the Maoris in a most humiliating position. It appeared from tho report of the district nurse that tho action was altogether unwarranted and unnecessary. The federation decided to forward tho following resolution to tho Health Department:—"That it is respectfully submitted by this federation that medical methods should not be used by medical ollicers attending a mixed school which tend to create a humiliating racial differentiation against the Maori child, such as was done in tho case of tho Te Kuiti District High School."