Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY. AUG. 9, 1913. MAORIS AND EPIDEMICS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13150, 9 August 1913, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY. AUG. 9, 1913. MAORIS AND EPIDEMICS.

There is considerable groiinu Tor dissatisfaction at the inactivity of the Pubiio Health Depaitmeht \rith regard to the vaccination of the native population of this district. The prevailing epidemic m the North is a djsease £6 Which ,the native race appears to be peculiarly susoeptibl«. It has run like wiUfire through tW nilrV6 'kaijig«i' M tho northern peninsula, and private advioes state tliat the full measure of mortality and suffering haa not been disclosed by the Auckland press. The Health Department only awolte to tfo& seriousness of the malady after it had obtained a substantial hold, and their efforts, 1 though now better :<.brga;««tfed,' >vef« for some weeks furtive and ineffectual, to prevent the spread of the con- 1 tagion. Tli© epidemic has spread to some extent to the south of Auckland, ' but happily has not made any headway along the Bay of Plenty, and this district of the East Coast is still happily [ remote from the danger, though therji'

can be no oertainty that it will not yet invade our borders. ~v7hat seems to be most necessary m view of the fertile field that the blood of the Maori people appears to offer to the introduction of germs, is that the Maoris should all I vaccinated, and this the Department of Health has a right to insist upon, not alone for their own protection, but for the protection of the pakeha as well. For the Maoris, it may bo said, that they have shown themselves ready and willing to submit to the precaution where facilities were available, but the Department has made very inadequate provision, for them. Tho quantity of lymph sent to this district was grossly inadequate, and there has been no systematic endeavor to" 'Visit the pas and treat the whole of tine native people resident m the district. Dr Wi Repa, who was engaged m the vaccination service amongst the Maoris, and was doing good work, we' are informed, has been transferred to Opotiki, and whilst to some extent his work there may have the effect of guarding our frontiers, it would have been far more satisfactory had he remained to continue the vaccination in' this district on an active scale. The facts connected with this 'epidemic give emphasis to the suggestion which has been made m these columns on more than one occasion, that it should be insisted upon by the State that there should be registration of all deaths of Maoris. Had this been the law the northern outbreak would have been dds covered much earlier than ,it was. Natives take ill and die, and the State has no cognizance of their demise, or the causes leading up to it, excepting of ■couiso where dt is publicly known; .thai there ; haa been actual bodily harm, or where, 'as In the present «ase, an epidemic makes itself forcibly apparent. No one can tell definitely when or where the present epidemic originated on New Zealand soil, or whether there were not several deaths from pustular disease before the matter came under public notice, but if regis•tration of deaths had been cbmpnlsbry it is more than likely that, the disease would liave been discovered at its inception and possibly eradicated before it had gone very far. The present Native Minister and his predecessors In office have spoken of the advisability of bringing into force a system of registra--tion of births, deaths, and marriages, but the matter appears to get no further than the contemplation stage. The loss and trouble the country has been pir to m connection with what the Auckland papers are pleased to term "the Maori epidemic, should certainly hasten the day when legislativS authority is given to this very desirable reform.