Tribute To Suva Medical
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
School
From Our Own Correspondent SUVA. April 21.
THE Central Medical School in Suva, Fiji, has been described by Sir Peter Buck, formerly Maori Medical Officer of Health and Director of Maori Hygiene and now Director of the Bishop Museum at Honolulu, as probably the finest institu tion for native welfare in the Pacific.
Sir Peter feels that it is a fine example of applied anthropology. He said that it is difficult to give a qualified white doctor,a sufficient training in anthropology to enable him to apply it to his relations with native patients. On the other hand, the native medical practitioner is a prac tical anthropologist jn the environment in which his medical training is to be applied.
A sidelight on the quality of the Fijian medical practitioners produced by the school, was recently given this writer by three Europeans living in semi-remote parts of the Fiji Group. These three (one of them a woman) are firm in their preference for their local NMP’s, despite the fact that in all cases European doctors are available.
The newly appointed Chief Secretary for the Western Pacific High Commission, Mr. G. D. Chamberlain (formerly Colonial Secretary in Gambia), arrived in Suva by air in March, from London. Mr.
Chamberlain replaces Mr. H. H. Vaskess, who is shortly to retire after 36 years’ service with the High Commission. Mr.
Vaskess intends to spend some months with Mrs. Vaskess and their two sons in Australia; but they will presently return and live in Suva, in the country to which they have given so much of their lives.