A MAORI CONTINGENT.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 4944, 18 September 1914, Page 5

A MAORI CONTINGENT.

GRAVE RISKS OF FEVER. Electric Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland. Last Night. Grave risks will he taken in forming a contingent of Maori volunteers, according to a statement made in an interview by the District Health Officer, Dr. Makgill. He declared that typhoid fever lias been so widespeaci among the native population this win. tor that the gathering of a large number of Marais will almost eery tainly result in an epidemic of disease. Dr. Makgill stated that during the present winter tvphoid has been rife among the Maori people of the Auckland province, and in parts at. least of the Wellington province. Even if medical examination were able to eliminate natives sickening for the disease, there always remains the danger of “carriers," persons who have recovered from the disease, but in whose bodies the bacilli still persist, and are discharged from time to time. "Carriers” are known to have been the cause of maiiv*epidemics They are extremely difficult to detect. ns the infection is not always apparent to examination. It is certain that a number of “carriers'’ would bo included in «nv contingent formed of Maoris. It would be extroniely dangerous to collect a. couple of hundred natives in one camp or in one ship.