The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1897-11-16
CONTINUED from LIST page.)

III. what is good Tor you Us bad Tor
us. The only good thing you gave
us was education. But you gave us
other things with It, You gave US
your diseases. Very bad diseases,
too, some OF them. We did not
know What consumption was before
you came. Now hundreds of the
young men aud the young women
have got it. Rheumatism, too, we
got from you; and have 7 not myself
been laid low with paralysis And
has Wahanui not got the gout7
Then, too, we get fever, and our
children die off with diphtheria.
Think, too, Of the thousands who
died with measles in one year. And
is there not smallpox The Pakeka
goes to the hospital when he is i'll
and gets cured; the Maori goes to
his WHARF and dies there. And
drink That is the worst disease.
That attacks all, old and young
alike. 1t kills the women as well as
the men. Look at the king. 1t is
killing him, and his sons, too. You
give us clothes and blankets to keep
us warm, and when we go without
them we get cold, SO that they, too,
cause trouble. No, Mr. Balance,
civilisation is good for you, but it is
death to u.s."
Here, then, is the secret OF the
decay While we have given the
Maoris our diseases, we have not
bestowed on them the means OF
combating them. The mortality,
particularly among the children, is
extraordinary. While travelling
through the King Country some
years ago, l was forced by stress Of
weather to spend the night in a
WHARF at Kopua. There were about
twenty human beings, including
myself, huddled together in space
about 20it. by IL IT,, and there was
not soul who was not wet through
Several were already suffering from
lung disease, and, in addition to
lying about in wet clothes, they had
the disadvantage of having little or
nothing between them and the soft,
damp clay. To me the experience
was almost fatal, but TO my bed
fellows--if so | might call them it
was an everyday occurrence 10 the
wet SEASON. Once SOW the germs of
disease ia such surroundings with
no village doctor or madeleine chest
to check the outbreak in its initial
stages, aud time will do the re-
maiDder. 1t is surprising that the
Government has not done something
to check the spread Of disease among
the natives.
Another cause contributing TO the
decay of the Maoris is the remark
able choice displayed by some Of
the tribes in their selection of a
settlement. In the days of the in
ter-tribal wars it was customary to
select elevated table lands, hill-tops,
and mountain sides for pahs and
kaingss, because OF their greater
safety from a strategic point of view.
1t was necessary to be high up and
secure from reprisals, but the new
weapons and methods Of warfare in
troduced by the British altered all
this; and henceforth villages we're
established in the lowlying or
swampy regions. When King Taw.
hiao convened his meeting of the
tribes in 1881, he fixed on WHAT
whatihoe as the scene OF his great
encampment. Whares and runun-
gas were run up on delta ankle
deep ia mud, and here some thou
sands Of men, women and children
lived and slept, with what conse-
quences to themselves may be
guessed.
The heavy mortality among
women and children is not to be
wondered at, In the days before
horses and public houses. Maori