Rarotonga's infants

Over half of Rarotonga's infants are under-nourished

From W. H. Percival

in Rarotonga.

The 26-bed childrens’ ward at

Rarotonga Hospital in February

was accommodating between 40 and 50 children, most of whom were suffering from gastro enteritis and chest complaints.

Five of them were, in addition, badly under-nourished when ad mitted—and all five died.

Director of Health, Dr. J. Williams, said that if they had not been suffer ing from malnutrition, all five could have been saved.

In a preliminary estimate the Health Department has said that over 60 per cent, of children of pre-school age in Rarotonga are undernourished, and a health campaign has now been launched to educate mothers in cor rect diets for infants.

Most of the undernourished chil dren come from large and poor families. The cost of living in Raro tonga is high, with food costing roughly as much as it does in New Zealand, where the average wage is three or four times higher than in the Cooks.

"Grim"

A Rarotongan wage earner trying to keep a wife and large family alive on $l2 a week is faced with a grim situation unless he has some land on which to plant. Many people living in Rarotonga are outer islanders with no land rights in Rarotonga, but some are allowed “squatters’ rights” by local families.

Recent reports indicate that a great deal more subsistence planting could and should be done in Raro tonga.

It would also appear that far too much money is wasted on dances and cinema shows, and that malnutrition is a “side effect” of the change-over from a semi-subsistence economy to a monied economy.

The government is considering ways and means to encourage people to plant more in Rarotonga. One idea is to reduce the weekly working hours of public servants, to give them more time to work on their land.