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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 25. 25th September 1974

Death on the Roads

page 13

Death on the Roads

In Salient, July 3, we reproduced a table from the NZ Yearbook which gave Maori and non-Maori accident rates for 1971. When expressed as rates per million of population (Non-Maoris: crude rate — Maoris: adjusted rate), these figures indicated that the number of Maori deaths on the road was more than twice that of the non-Maori population: a pattern which has occurred throughout the history of accident statistics. The Maori rate was 6.8 compared to the European rate of 3.69 per 10,000 of population. This twofold risk of 1964-1971 is, however, an improvement on the threefold risk which applied from 1954-1958.

The reasons for the highly disproportionate Maori/non-Maori rates may be obvious — possibly greater abuse of alcohol, older cars, lighter Maori passenger ratio, statistically younger population etc — but apart from the coroner's report on the direct cause of death, the indirect social factors are not listed in any Department of Health or Ministry of Transport publication. The only material that is available is contained in a purely technical statistical statement issued by the Ministry of Transport, entitled: "Motor Accidents in NZ". This statement (hardly a study) contains information about classification and cause of accidents, but does not distinguish between Maori and non-Maori populations.

Research is inhibited by political sensitivity: both Maori and Island Affairs and Ministry of Transport Departments are not at liberty to undertake accurate and exhaustive studies because they are not officially permitted to make separate Maori/non-Maori classification on questionnaires. Amazing — and the calendar reads 1974. Now it would be naive to imagine that the attitudes held by the man-on-the-street are different to those held by the bureaucrats (or that they are in fact not one and the same) and there isn't space to launch into a tirade on the gross transperancy of the egaliterian myth or of our Victoria attitude to race, but the fact remains: there are twice as many Maoris dying on the roads as non-Maoris. Is this equality? Is this right?

Are the powers that be alarmed at this discrepancy? What is being done? In 1973 the Ministry of Transport initiated a marae education programme, courses on traffic education have been held on the Te Poho and Manganuka maraes, and a further course is planned for Waihi this summer.

Other activities included a visit by officers to Te Aute College; a sociological study of a housing area in Otara in order to compare accident rates with other state and private housing areas; work on a thesis at Canterbury University — "Relationship of Traffic Education and the Maori Adolescent"; surveys to determine, among other things, accident involvement of different ethnic groups — whether certain groups are over-involved, and what is being done.

Despite the fact that traffic accident statistics have been compiled for several deeades, and rates per million of population tables have been published for each year since 1960 (non-Maori — 131; Maori — 498) this programme has been underway for less than a year. And it is still too soon to assess results say the Ministry of Transport spokesmen.

In the Maori and Island Affairs Department work is done on housing, land development, special training courses, island affairs and social welfare. Today the department has 108 staff in its social welfare division. Basically, their work is to serve as a link between the department and its clients and to encourage progress in health, employment, housing and especially education. Welfare officers advise the department and other state and private agencies on the social welfare of the Maori community. This extends to such subjects as budgeting advice and crime prevention. They are expected to take an active part in the preservation and development of traditional culture.

In the Wellington branch there is only one man who is involved with research: his desk is tittered with paper and he has neither time nor inclination to look deeply into the officially unrecognised issue of Maoris and fatalities. Besides said a spokeswoman, even when they attempted to obtain information requiring separate Maori/non-Maori classifications they met with an emphatic not From whom, department heads? The Government Printer? To find out we sent the following letter to Matiu Rata, Ministry of Maori Affairs.

"Dear Sir,

The NZ Yearbook contains statistics which indicate a highly disproportionate number of road traffic fatalities for Maoris as compared with those of non-Maoris. Figures given on page 103 of the 1973 Yearbook for rates per million of population give a reading of 585 for Maoris and 219 for non-Maoris. Also, the Department of Health table giving Maori-European comparisons in mortality states:

(Article 61) The Maori is twice as likely to be involved in a fatal motor accident than is the European.

We wish to establish: (1) whether this situation is of concern to to the authorities — whether they consider it as being worthy of study and if so, what is being done about it. (2) Who these authorities are.

Furthermore, there is an additional-problem regarding race classification. Sources in both the Ministry of Transport and the Maori and Island Affairs Department claim that, as this is a 'politically sensitive area', their research is often inhibited by a reluctance to make distinctions between Maori and non-Maoris on survey sheets, questionnaires (etc). Thus, even if there were attempts to determine the facts behind the discrepancy inn traffic accident figures there is the suggestion that these attempts would be thwarted by official policy.

Our questions, sir, are:
1)Is this particular situation of personal concern to yourself; should it be given priority status; and if so, by whom?
2)What is the Government's position regarding classification by race?"

After many weeks there has been no reply.

—Brian King

Black round-edged boarder