MATE KOHI COULD BE WIPED OUT

Te Ao Hou, December 1956, Page 61

MATE KOHI COULD BE WIPED OUT by Dr. R. S. R. Francis I think it may be a good thing to begin this article with a little history. There is no evidence that tuberculosis existed amongst the Maoris before the pakeha arrived. Only the very fittest of people could have survived the privations of the long canoe journeys made by the original Maori voyages to New Zealand. Anyone with T.B. could not have survived such an ordeal. So far as I know no ancient Maori bones have ever been found which showed any signs of infection by tuberculosis. We know the ancient Egyptians had tuberculosis because mummies have been found which showed T.B. of the bones; but nothing like this has ever been found here. I think we can safely say that Tuberculosis came with the Europeans and that it was not long before it affected the Maoris. As early as 1827 Tuberculosis was beginning to be evident. In that year August Earle, of the U.S. ship “Beagle,” was shocked at the ravages of tuberculosis among young Maori women. By 1850 tuberculosis had become a real scourge, and so it remained for many years. However, little was done to cope with the problem until 1900 when the Department of Health was set up. A further step forward was made when Dr Pomare was made Health Officer for the Maoris. In his first report in 1902 he stressed the seriousness of tuberculosis amongst the Maoris and the need to take steps to control it. The steps he suggested were a better standard of living and better hygiene. These two points still remain an essential part of any programme to defeat tuberculosis. We all know that tuberculosis was a heavy burden on the Maori people, but real statistical proof was lacking until 1920. In that year the figures for Maori deaths from tuberculosis were first available. The Maori death rate for tuberculosis was shown to be astonishingly high, well over 300 deaths per 100,000. The European death rate from T.B. was only one fifth of this, i.e., about 60 per 100,000.