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Health
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Innisfail Hospital 1930 |
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www.slq.qld.gov.au |
From May to the end of 1886 there were twenty Polynesian deaths, or one in eight admitted to hospital, with chest diseases, such
as consumption, pneumonia and pleurisy, which were the primary cause of death. Otherwise the majority of deaths that took
place outside of the hospital were caused by accident. This mortality was certainly not due to any defective mismanagement
on the plantations as the boys were exceptionally well treated. But the establishment of a hospital at Geraldton (Innisfail)
would have been conducive to the saving of life amongst the kanakas.
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Beside the kanakas, there were 174 whites admitted to hospital with eleven deaths, and
seven of those were Europeans and the rest Javanese and Chinese. Sunstroke was never a cause of death.
In
1887 there were 435 Polynesian deaths, or one in eighteen of those admitted. Beside
the kanakas the number of whites admitted to hospital was 103 with eight deaths, of which five were Europeans.
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In 1888 there were 459 Polynesians admitted and twenty died, being one in twenty-three
of those admitted. As well, there were 118 whites admitted with six deaths, of which three were Europeans. There were only
three adults who died in the whole district during the year and they died in hospital, with only one case of apoplexy reported.
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