SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16495, 30 July 1924, Page 8

SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.

ISLAND Ff’UIT THAI)!

TANG IS AND PUBLIC HEALTH

(Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, lust night

The House (net at 2.30 p.m

Replying to Mr. W. ,]. .lordan. Sir Maui Pomare said that the question of tlie suitability of the steamer Ngakuta for carrying island fruit was under consideration by tint Government. A pro-perly-insulated ship would cost a great deal of money, and it was a question for the State to consider whether it would find that money and found a State steamship service to the islands. Replying to Mr. 11. W. Urn. (Southern Maori), Sir Maui Pomare said it- was not the intention of the Public Health Department to stop Maori tangis, because that was impossible, and the Department would not attempt the- impossible. A tangi was simply a. weeping, and the people could not be prevented from weeping, either individually or collectively. ' However, there were certain parts of their tangis which were not in the. interests of public health, and these must cease. On the whole, however, lie thought that the Maori people had fairly well observed the laws of hygiene as laid down by the' Maori Councils Act. The practice, of tangis was not peculiar to the' Maori race, as he understood in the ease of the Hebrew nation, from whom the. Christians got their religion, they wept, for Moses forty days and forty nights. Sir Maui Pomare asked leave to withdraw the Medical Practitioners’ Bill. Leave was- granted.