NATIVE HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 264, 6 November 1937, Page 10

NATIVE HEALTH

PROBLEM OF HOUSING WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION PLEA BY SIR A. NGATA [ Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, Nov. 5. Discussing the Health Department vote of £1,141,650, in the House of Representatives this afternoon, Sir Apirana Ngata discussed native health problems and pointed out that the whole of this question was fundamentally connected with housing. Help was needed for Maoris who were in poorer circumstances. The necessary provision could not be made for them for housing on account of repayment of loans, but he suggested that if provision were macle in the c.'vii list for setting aside a reserve fund to meet any possible losses on hou.es foi Maori/ it would tend tr relieve tne position and would prove a very beneficial thing foi the native race. He stressed th? importance ol water supply ana sanitation for native dwellings, important for healtn reasons, ana stated that while the Maoris taking part in development schemes were being provided with water and sanitation this did not apply to the natives who were not so situated. He thought that as a result of the provision of good water and sanitation schemes there would be a big drop in the incidence of such infectious diseases as typhoid fever, etc., and the provision of such facilities was a basic problem which should have been tackled long ago. A vote of a thousand pounds or two a year <sn the understanding that the sum be repaid by the Maoris through the Native Affairs Department vvoula go a long way to provide the facilities required. The Minister for Health, Hon. P Fraser, in reply, said that a start had been made with n housing scheme for the Maoris and it was proposed tG extend the plan throughout New Zealand. Particular attention was being given to the North Auckland district where the economic factors arising from the state of the gum industry had to be taken into consideration. Clarification of the whole question would depend on the rate of progress in housing in this part of the country. He added that his department was fully alive to the necessity for maintaining a preventive campaign against tuberculosis. Such a campaign was eminently preferable to a curative policy. Science had shown that tuberculosis could be prevented and the Government intended to carry on until the disease had been de' feated. This could be done and there was no method known to medical science that would not be adopted by the Government in its efforts to put an end to the disease. The Minister characterised the history of tuberculosis among the Maori people as deplorable and shocking and it was a reflection that had to be removed.

The Minister, speaking of the question of water supply and sanitation, stated that whenever a practical scheme of improvement was submitted to his department it would he examined, and if it were shown that there were possibilities of its being successful, it would be put into operation. He assured them that money would be available for any scheme of drainage or water supply that complied with the needs of the community and was -assured of success.