TIKITIKI NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18064, 15 April 1933, Page 14

TIKITIKI NEWS

(Herald Correspondent.) Two or three years ago deaths from T.B. were quite common amongst the natives living round Rangitukia, and letters hearing on the mutter appeared in the Herald. The matter was also discussed by the Waiapu Hospital Board. .The agitation led to the appointment of Dr. Wi Ropa as a special medical officer, whose duty was to investigate the prevalence of T.B. amongst the natives on the Coast. Now Dr. H. B. Turbott, medical officer,' is taking up the matter with thoroughness. Since the instalment of an X-ray plant at To Puia Hospital, families from Rangitukia for the last three weeks have been carried daily when the weather permits to Te Puia, where they are examined by Dr. Mackav. Assisting l)r. Turbott are Mr. Holder, sanitary inspector, Mr. Rakahaore Pomare, and two department nurses. For their efforts in raising money for : the purchase, of an X-ray plant the natives arc being amply repaid in that , they are receiving direct benefit Jrom the use of the apparatus. Another concert in aid of the X-ray fund is to be given at Ruatoria on April .10, and the natives are practising hard. The Rangitukia pnity "ill put on some new items. This party is worth hearing at any time. On the occasion of the first concert given at Ruatoria the hall proved quite inadequate to accommodate the large uuni | her of people who clamoured for ad- , mittance. The concert next week i piomises to be another great draw. i Sir Apirana Ngata, Native Minister, < accompanied by Messrs. Tau Hcuare and Tai Te Tomo, M.IVs, and visitors from .Wanganui and Rotorua is expected at Wai-o-matatini on April IS. The local natives have been practising haka now for some considerable time. Boys are showing much interest in the , national dance and are shaping quite , creditably. Last Sunday, at Horoera, the Horo- , era and East Cape natives tendered Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Nepia a reception on the occasion of their taking over the charge of the Horoera native school. Mr. Nepia was transferred ; from Capo Runaway, where lie made himself well liked. One speaker wished Mr. Nepia success in las new sphere, particularly as Maori teachers were on trial, for, so far as he knew, , only three Maoris had been placed in charge of schools, namely, Messrs. Tawhiri, Piper, and Nepia. The speaker criticised the department’s ! regulation tabooing the employment of Maori boys as pupil teachers, foi. he argued, if the native schools had been a success, surely one great proof of that should be the number of Maoris teaching their own people. He pointed out also the three Maoris a.ready referred to were trained :n European schools and not in their own. Mr. Nepia responded in appropriate terms and expressed his gratitude for unhouuiled kindness shown to him and his wife both at Cape Runaway and already at Horoera. He could not return the people’s kindness, but he would as some measure of return work hard to teach and train their children.