MAORIS’ DISLIKE OF HOSPITAL

Southland Times, Issue 23817, 15 May 1939, Page 7

MAORIS’ DISLIKE OF HOSPITAL

JURY’S RIDER AT INQUEST

ON BOY

(United Press Association)

GISBORNE, May 12.

The opinion that the case should be brought before the Health Department with a view to departmental action to make natives more appreciative of the value of hospital and medical treatment was expressed in a rider by the coroner’s jury at an inquest on a Maori boy, Makihi Tepeeti, aged eight, who died at Tahunga on May 9. Dr Harold Angell expressed the opinion that death was due to tuberculosis. Medical attention in the past few months would not have saved the life of the child.

Peata Tepeeti, in evidence said he had not called in a doctor or the district nurse, but asked Jack Waikato to treat the boy whom he did not want sent to the hospital. Waikato, who advised sending the child to the hospital, took the boy to his camp. The witness told the coroner he did not like the hospital or doctors. Jack Waikato testified that the Maoris did not like hospital. Consequently Tepeeti would not send the boy there. During the three weeks the boy spent at his camp his health seemed to improve, but the boy died on .Tuesday. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with medical evidence.