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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

The Maoris

The Maoris.

Touching briefly upon the gradual diminution of the numbers of the Native race—a race the perpetuation of which it should be our earnest endeavour to maintain—it is gratifying to note that one of their own number has been' intrusted by the Government with the maintenance and improvement of the health of the Maori people. It is an astonishing feature of the energy and adaptability of the Maori people that they have been able to so quickly adopt the rules and usages of our civilisation, and that in the space of fifty years they should have been able to produce men who were able to pass the examinations in different professions such as medicine and law is a remarkable fact. No doubt Dr. Pomare, with the aid of the Natives themselves, will be able to check the death-rate amongst the Native people.

Lately I happened to be travelling in the Waikato district, and while being driven by a Maori for some page 17 distance I engaged in conversation with him, and found that he was well informed on many different subjects; that he was well clad and shod, and understood the value of warm clothing both night and day and wherever he was; that he understood the European ideas of work and continuity of work; and that he was quite as well informed as the average European workman, if not better. I mentioned to him that he seemed to me to be different from other Maoris I had met in the district, and I asked him how it was. He told me that he had been brought up from infancy by Europeans.

Shortly afterwards I was asked to go to a Maori pa to see a young child which was suffering from whooping-cough. The child was in a tent, the ground of which was partly covered with mats. The only clothing the child had was a little vest and a shawl. The little thing was suffering a great deal of pain from the commencement of an attack of pleurisy. The parents and relations of the child exhibited the greatest anxiety for his health, but had no idea at all how a child of that age should be clad, or fed, or housed. The only chance they had of getting a prescription made up was by sending it forty miles. The prescription was sent, but after a week no medicine had arrived. If the child, as it often did, cried at night, and would ask to be taken out into the fresh air, they would take the child out into the open at any time during the night. I felt perfectly helpless, and could not help thinking at the time that if I could only get the services of a trained nurse that child's life might have been saved, and I also thought of the strong Maori who stated that he owed his knowledge of the value of proper clothing, &c., to having been brought up by Europeans; and the thought has struck me since that it might be possible to have nurses in the different districts where the bulk of the Maoris live, and these nurses might be detailed off to look after the young Maori race under the instruction of Dr. Pomare. If it is possible to save the race, it will be so by looking after their young, and by taking charge of their young and bringing them up under European methods. One often hears of philanthropic women who go away to India and China in order to take part in mission-work in those countries. I would suggest that there is in New Zealand an opening for page 18 such women, first of all, to make themselves competent nurses, and, after that, to devote their energies to the preservation of the health of the young of the Maori race. In connection with this care of the Maoris by medical men of their own race, it is interesting to note that the New Zealand University has this year placed upon it rolls the first Maori medical graduate. Moreover, I am informed that his student career was remarkably satisfactory, and that he passed a brilliant examination.

In conclusion, I wish to draw the attention of the profession to the Benevolent Fund. The Benevolent Fund contains only seventy-one members, and has now to its credit a little over £700. No use can be made of this capital until £1,000 has been subscribed, when the interest of that amount will always be available for any deserving case. I would urge members to subscribe to this fund, and would remind those who wish to do so that a donation of £10 would make them life-members. The committee of the fund, without touching the capital, have already made several grants in specially urgent cases.

I wish to thank you for the kind way in which you have listened to what, I am afraid, is rather a tedious address. I also wish to draw your attention to the Medical Defence Union, which only numbers about a hundred members. The subscription to this is very small, only 5s. for members of the New Zealand Branch, and it is to be hoped that a large number of members will join this year.