HEALTH OF THE MAORIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 69

HEALTH OF THE MAORIS.

INSTRUCTION IN NATIVE SCHOOLS.

AUCKLAND, January 19. The question of instructing children in Maori schools in health matters was discussed at a conference of native school teachers to-day. Addresses were . delivered by Dr Ellison (director of Maori hygiene),' Dr Ada Paterson (director of school hygiene), and Dr Mildred Staley, representing the Child Welfare Council. Dr Paterson said the work of the department was restricted to a certain extent by the size of the available medical staff, and it had not been found possible yet to make medical inspection of Native school children part of the regular routine. The policy had been to visit schools where advice on special problems was sought, and an endeavour was made to supply th e teachers with literature on health matters.

“ It appears to me that any risk of the extinction of the Maori race is now a thing of the past,” said Dr Ellison, referring to ■ vital statistics quoted in the course of a review of the work of his division. Compared with the people of the Pacific Islands, Dr Ellison said he found Maoris difficult to help on account of the strong prejudices fostered by. halfeducated ' Natives, and'in some cases by Europeans. Such prejudice had considerably hampered measures for the control of typhoid fever by the innoculation method, which had otherwise proved highly successful. There had been a marked improvement in recent years in the hygienic conditions at public Native gatherings. There were exceptions, but the Maori generally was not nearly so careless in these matters as formerly. The real meaning of education should bo to teach the children how to live, said Dr Mildred Staley. In Maori schools, especially, the whole basis of health teaching should be to instil into the children a practical knowledge of how to manage'the body, the most wonderful machine ever made. Such teaching, was of far greater, importance than cramming their minds with history, geography, and arithmetic.