LEPER ISLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20168, 9 June 1928, Page 7

LEPER ISLAND

TREATMENT EULOGISED IMPLICIT CONFIDENCE OF ISLANDERS. [ Special “Chronicle” Service. ] AUCKLAND, Junc 8. Released from the Island of Lepers, Makogai. two men came -to Auckland by the Hinemoa this morning. They arc Puru, a Cook Island pearl diver, whose natatorial feats are said to have been recorded by Mr Zane Grey in one of his books, and Mr Six Pharaoh, a Maori farmer of Wanganui. After nearly three years at the Island they have been discharged and are on their way back to their homes. Mr Pharaoh could not say enough for the treatment he received at tho Island. “The Maori was treated like a white man,” he said, “and Dr. Naff, the superintendent, does everything he can to cure the patients. There have been 40 discharges since February, 1927.”

There are now 413 leper patients on Makogai Island, the majority of them being in the convalescent state. All the returned patients speak in glowing terms of the treatment shown them by the Roman Catholic sisters who are in charge at Makogai. They rtatc that between 50 and 60 patients are hoping to be sent home on the next voyage. Reports made \y the resident officers at the different islands visited, show that the natives have now’ an implicit confidence in the Department’s treatment of lepers. The Hinemoa has removed 103 lepers from Penrhyn Island during the past five years, 13 being removed when visited this voyage. Over 50 have been cured and have returned to their homes by the. island schooners.

At all the islands visited, a considerable improvement was noticed by tho Hinemoa’s officers in the condition of tho natives and their villages. A few years ago tHe islanders existed in a hand-to-mouth fashion, but now, owing to the organised system of marketing their surplus copra and bananas, thej are practically independent. Ten ycari ago a steady decline in the population was noted, but for the past five years, since the inauguration of tho rcgulai visits by the medical officers of th< Cook Islands Department, the incrcas< of births over deaths is very consider able.