164 Transactions. 



and have instructed them in the elements of the rules of health, 

 but from want of proper sanitation, and from the impossibility of 

 getting any course of treatment carried out, their efforts have 

 been mostly unavailing. Besides, the Maori is at all times an 

 unsatisfactory patient. Once his vitality falls below a certain 

 point he loses heart, and frequently dies from the mere want of 

 an effort to live. From an epidemic of typhoid fever a hundred 

 died in a village in the north out of a population of five hundred 

 a few years ago, at a time when almost every settlement had a 

 similar visitation. Asthma and consumption probably always 

 existed among the Maoris to a certain extent, but under the 

 healthy conditions that obtained in their primitive state their 

 prevalence was greatly limited. There is no doubt that the 

 receptivity of the Native for these and their contingent diseases 

 — bronchitis and pneumonia— has proportionately increased with 

 the generally lowered tone produced by the causes already 

 enumerated. At the present time, throughout the north — the 

 region in which the contact between the races has been the 

 longest and most intimate — it is rare to find a really sound 

 Maori. Most of the old people are troubled more or less with 

 asthma, while amongst the young and apparently the most 

 robust cases of consumption develop with marvellous rapidity. 



The Hui. 



One of the most fatal mediums for the propagation and 

 spread of disease is the modern hui. There have, of course, 

 always been huis. They are, in fact, an essential feature of 

 Maori economy ; but the modern hui possesses certain elements 

 which did not obtain in the old days. A hid is a gathering 

 of the tribe, the hapu, or the family, and may be held for any 

 purpose of common interest, whether political, social, or religious 

 — for a tribal meeting, for the welcome of distinguished visitors, 

 for a marriage, or a funeral. Any Maori is free to assist at a 

 hui, and European visitors are always made welcome. In a 

 very large hui, to which parties come from a distance, it is not 

 unusual for them to bring contributions of provisions, bnl the 

 tangata whenua, or local Maoris, are always considered as the 

 entertainers, and it is a point of honour for them to supply 

 as large a quantity of the very best that the tribe or settlement 

 can afford, even if they have to go short for months afterwards. 

 Up to some twenty years ago it was customary for the enter- 

 tainers to erect temporary sheds of rawpo or nikau to serve as 

 sleeping-places for the visitors, the discussions being carried on 

 in the open air. Of late years, however, it has become the 

 practice to have in every settlement of importance a large hall, 

 built of sawn timber, to serve the double purpose of hostelry 



