LIFE ON PITCAIRN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 15

LIFE ON PITCAIRN

A VIGOROUS PEOPLE MEDICAL OFFICER’S VIEW NEEDS IN EDUCATION (Per Press Association.) WHANGAREI, this day. Interesting comments.on the history, mode of life and health of the Pitcairn Islanders were made by Dr. D. Cook, the medical officer of health, Northland, who has returned after five weeks spent in investigating the health of the inhabitants of the island at the request of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific,

The doctor’s conclusion is that the most pressing need is the provision of sound educational facilities based on a true appreciation of the needs of the inhabitants. While the climate is good and the soil better than the average, considerable physical effort is needed to wrest a living by the old methods of agriculture. He said that the original stock represented good samples of picked English sailors and healthy Tahitian women and the progeny was strong and vigorous. This combination of excellent vigorous stock in a good environment from which a living could be wrested only by continuous activity produced a people lithe in build but strong and free from disease. The teeth only were bad, particularly those of the front upper jaw. This could be attributed to inbreeding, but Dr. Cook’s opinion _ was that a more probable cause was a deficient dietary. There appeared to be a lack of relative animal food with an excess of starchy food and no milk in the diet.

“Much has been said on the subject of degeneration from in-breeding,” Dr. Cook said, “but the islanders compare very favourably with any race of the present time. Mentally there is no degeneracy and the intelligence of the average islander is good. There is, however, a cultural decline as the result of inadequate schooling and many young people make little use of the English language, using a dialect unintelligible to the visitor.”