Abstract
THE Government of Fiji recognized many years ago the need for a medical service for the native population, but realized that the employment of European doctors on a large scale was impracticable on account of cost, and that practitioners of their own race would be best suited to attend to the needs of the natives. The Government therefore established the Native School of Medicine at Suva for the benefit of Fijians, and for many years its ‘graduates' did excellent work. A few years ago, the Rockefeller Foundation commenced investigations upon the problems of disease and of depopulation in these islands, and was so impressed with the success of this Native School that it offered to co-operate with the Fijian Government, and suggested the training of natives from eight groups of islands in the School at Suva. The Government agreed to work in conjunction with the Foundation, and the School was then re organized and reconstituted in its present form. The School is residential, and is attached to the Suva Memorial Hospital. Its direction is in European hands, the students are under reasonable discipline, and the cost of maintenance is smallsomething less than £3,000 a yearwhich is contributed in various ways.
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Native Medical Practitioners in the South Seas. Nature 138, 320 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138320a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138320a0