Matawai has seldom had doctor or dentist based in the district, relying on a district nurse to attend to accidents and unwell people, the nearest doctor being in Te Karaka or Gisborne. In addition, a school dental nurse has been based at the Matawai School to provide dental treatment for children of the district.

William Joseph (Joe) BELL (1876-1931) was a part-time dentist who lived in Matawai between 1918 and 1928. In 1918 Joe and his wife rented "a room divided into two portions, one being used as a dentist's surgery and the other as a grocery shop". The room and attached boarding house were completely destroyed by fire on 21 February 1918. The Poverty Bay Herald reported in October 1931: "The death of Mr. Bell, formerly a dentist, of Matawai, has occurred in Auckland. Mr. Bell will long he remembered for his gentle treatment of the children to whom he ministered in his profession in the years gone by." Mr Bell was also the Waikohu County dog tax collector (1926-1928) and his wife had a stationary shop and was the Matawai agent for the Poverty Bay Herald for many years.

District Nurse

The District Nurse administered medicines for all sorts of illness, stitched up wounds, put broken limbs in plaster, and after severe injury made a patient comfortable for transport to hospital. The nurse also visited all the schools in the district at least 3 times per year to check on health of the children. After a birth, mothers were visited at home regularly to check on progress of the new child. The Matawai District Nurse's area included Motu, Motuhora, Matawai, Rakauroa, Otoko and Te Wera; about 20 km in each direction. The following newspaper report indicates the duties of the Matawai and Te Karaka nurses in 1935.

17 August 1935, Page 10

DISTRICT NURSES: TE KARAKA AND MATAWAI

ALTERED DUTIES PROPOSED

Discussion at recent meetings of the Cook Hospital Board has centred about the respective duties of the district Native nurses at Te Karaka and Matawai. At Thursday's meeting a report on this matter by a special committee was considered and it was decided to refer the position of the Te Karaka nurse to the Department of Health, with a view to lightening her duties.

Points made in the committee's report included the following:—
Maori population: Te Karaka 703, Matawai 120.
Number of schools: Te Karaka 18, Matawai 3.
Children attending the schools: To Karaka 1100, Matawai 186.
Visits to schools: Te Karaka, each school every six or eight weeks: Matawai, each school three times per annum.
Maori pas: Te Karaka 17, with scattered Maori population in addition; Matawai. nil.
Car mileage (monthly average): Te Karaka 1305 to 1400 mies; Matawai 950 miles.
Distances to furthest points of routes covered: Te Karaka 62 miles, including 12 miles on horseback; Matawai, 25 miles.

The report then proceeded:- "The Te Karaka District Nurse is primarily a Native nurse under the control of the Department of Health. The board, however, require her to attend any cases referred to her. The European population attended by her is restricted to indigent cases. The Matawai district nurse attends any cases within her boundary and her cases are nearly all Europeans.

"We recommend: That the boundary of the Matawai district nurse remain as previously, which is defined as under: The whole of the Waikohu county, her point of contact with the Te Karaka district nurse to be (a) on the main road at the Mahaki stream at the foot of Otoko hill; (b) the Maungatawa stream through Whakarau.

"That it should be made known to residents that the Matawai district nurse has been instructed to attend by car only such patients as are physically incapable of seeing her at the district nurse's cottage. The district nurse, however, shall use her discretion in all cases, endeavouring to avoid as far as possible, special journeys to attend trivial cases.

"That having considered the present duties of the Te Karaka district nurse we are of opinion that owing to the number of schools, their location and the number of visits at present being paid thereto, in addition to her work with the Maori population, the position should be referred to the Department of Health with the suggestion that the frequency of school visits be reduced. The reports of the Te Karaka district nurse reveal that she is visiting each school every six to eight weeks, whereas the Matawai district nurse makes three only per annum to all schools."

The report was adopted practically without discussion.

Nurse Hannah Jane Greenslade was the first district nurse appointed for the Motu-Matawai area in 1913, undertaking the duties from 3 March 1913. She had completed her nursing training in October 1912 at a Gisborne maternity home. A cottage was made available by a settler for the nurse, and one bed was provided for cases requiring immediate attention. She attended patients by walking or riding to them, with more serious cases being carried to the railway by stretcher for transport to Gisborne. Nurse Greenslade married Mr Peter Clark of Matawai in 1916 and resigned in May 1919 when he had returned from WW1.

Matawai District Nurse, Sister Pritchard M.B.E.
Source: The Motu and Beyond - The way it was, Dick Twsleton, 2007.

Sister Ethel W T Pritchard was appointed district nurse at Matawai in 1927 and she worked there for 19 years. Her position came with a cottage near the railway station with a stable, a gig and a horse. Sister Pritchard had served overseas with the NZ Army Nursing Service during WW1. In December 1927 approval was given for purchase of a motor car to replace the horse and gig, with a third of the purchase price donated by settlers in the district. She was supplied with a brick red six cylinder Chevrolet with a door in the back for stretchers which enabled her to be considerably more efficient in her work. In 1949 she was awarded an M.B.E. for long services as district nurse and honorary child welfare officer.

In 1948 a clinic was built beside the nurse's cottage near the railway station to accommodate patients when a Medical Officer visited. Sister Evelyn J W Lockett was district nurse in Matawai for many years in the 1950's and 1960s, initially living and working from the cottage and clinic near the railway station, and later from the current clinic/residence opposite the police station.

Presently rural health nurses based at the Waikohu Health Center in Te Karaka visit Matawai and work out of the clinic shown in the photo below.

Matawai Health Centre, 2019.
Located opposite the police station.

Dental Nurse

New Zealand's School Dental Service was founded in 1921, partly as a response to the "appalling" state of children's teeth, but also at a time when social policy became centered on children's health and welfare. The Matawai community began fund raising for a proposed travelling dental clinic for the country districts based in Te Karaka in 1932, district school committees to jointly raise funds to purchase and equip a travelling dental clinic van, and the Government supplying a trained nurse to conduct clinics. The proposal failed to attract sufficient support, but a meeting in June 1934 obtained agreement to proceed and fund raising began again. However the mobile clinic never eventuated, the Te Karaka school committee instead concentrating on establishing a permanent clinic at a central point. In January 1938 the Minister of Education approved a grant towards the cost of constructing a dental clinic at the Te Karaka High School, to treat children from Whatatutu, Waikohu, Te Karaka, Kaitaratahi and Kanakanaia schools, with the possibility of Motu and Matawai as well.

The School Committees in the Motu-Matawai district then decided to erect a building in Matawai, being a central position, to be used as a school dental clinic. Following fund raising, plans were approved, and a dental clinic built in Matawai. As reported below, a dental clinic building was opened at Matawai School in 1940.

6 August 1938, Page 16.

DENTAL CLINIC
MOTU-MATAWAI GROUP
FINANCE RAISED

Some months ago at a meeting of school committees in the Motu-Matawai district interested in forming a dental clinic group, it was decided to erect a building in Matawai as being in the most central position of the schools concerned, to be used as a school dental clinic. Messrs.

Messrs. R. Fleming and J. K. Briant were appointed chairman and secretary respectively and asked to collect an the information necessary. Practically all the funds needed are now in hand, there being only one or two small amounts to come in.

Plans and specifications have been approved by the Hawke's Bay Education Board's architect and have been submitted to the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, for his approval, before the building can be erected and the £2 for £1 subsidy claimed.

It is understood that the dental nurse to take charge of the Te Karaka and Matawai clinics, is already stationed in Gisborne assisting at the clinic there until such time as she is required for these other clinics.

It is largely due to the generous cuts in the cost of material and labour made by the merchants and others approached that the clinic has been brought within reach of the district.

It is hoped that by holding one good function annually, sufficient funds can be raised to maintain it, thereby doing away with the necessity of making a levy on each child treated. However, the parents and others will be asked to decide that themselves later, when a committee, with a representative from each school interested will be formed to administer the affairs of the clinic.

1 March 1940, Page 2.

DENTAL TREATMENT
HILL-COUNTRY CLINIC
OPENING AT MATAWAI
LONG EFFORT REWARDED

A large attendance assembled at the official opening of the hill-country school dental clinic building in Matawai, the ceremony being performed by Mr. R. Fleming, who had been chairman of the Matawai School Committee for 20 years.

Mr. W. F. Robb, the present chairman of the school committee and chairman of the dental clinic committee, spoke of the benefits received at the clinic by more than 100 children in the district, and thanked Messrs. A. T. Coleman and E. H. Baker, members of the Hawke's Bay Education Board, for their efforts in pushing the claims of the district.

Messrs. Coleman and Baker congratulated the people of the district on their efforts in raising funds for the clinic.

Mr. Fleming expressed thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Robb for their good work in connection with the clinic and for the use of their room for the treatment of the children before the clinic was erected. The district was fortunate in having such an efficient dental nurse as Miss J. Cotterill.

Miss Cotterill was presented with a bouquet by John Hustler, who made the presentation on behalf of the children of the district.

Afternoon tea was provided by lady members of the Parent's League, Mrs. H. Bulst being in charge of the arrangements.

I attended the Matawai Dental Clinic in the 1950's and 1960s while at Matawai School, obtaining numerous fillings. Although electricity was available at the clinic in 1952, the nurse did not obtain an electric powered drill for several years afterwards. In my early visits she had a drill that operated with a foot pedal, the drill occasionally getting stuck and the pedal requiring a good push with the nurse's foot. The electric drill was a bit faster but still painful. Anesthetics were not available! At the conclusion of treatment I was usually given a small tooth drill case that had a clear plastic lid, containing some mercury. Mercury was used in amalgam fillings. This provided amusement at home until the poisonous mercury had evaporated. When I visited a dentist in Gisborne for the first time in my teens I experienced a high speed water cooled drill and was given anesthetic to reduce pain, making dental visits much more pleasant.