Tuberculosis In

Polynesia

Australian Writer Reports Bad Conditions

AN appeal for improved health services in Tonga and Rarotonga was made by Mrs. E. Marie Irvine, Australian au thoress, when speaking of her recent visit to those islands, at the Pacific Islands Club in Sydney.

Mrs. Irvine said that when Queen Salote recently called for recruits in Tonga, no fewer than 75 per cent, of those offering were found to be suffering from tuberculosis. The disease was rife throughout the islands. “There might be some excuse in Tonga”, continued the speaker, “as that kingdom has only a small budget, but I contend that New Zealand has absolutely fallen down on her job in Rarotonga, where there is not even a sanatorium for the treatment of sufferers”.

While Mrs. Irvine paid a tribute to the excellent work of Dr. E. P. Ellison, medical superintendent at Rarotonga, she said that his efforts were handicapped there because of no sanatorium. “It is absolutely tragic”, she said. “New Zea land can find money for a road there, and for jobs for her own young men, but she cannot afford £5,000 for such an institution”. A campaign should be in stituted, she insisted, to save the lives of young people in both groups, and, if necessary, an appeal should be made to the League of Nations. “If the money cannot be obtained elsewhere, why not appeal to the Rockefeller Foundation?” she added.

Mrs. Irvine said that native patients should not be expected to feed them selves in hospital. The correct foods should be supplied to them.

Mrs. Irvine spoke most warmly of the hospitality she had received in both places, and praised the interest Queen Salote took in the welfare of her people.

“The Queen is a magnificent woman, both mentally and physically”, she de clared, “and I was most impressed by the respect in which she is held by the Tongans”.