GENEROUS AUSTRALIANS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 292, 8 December 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENEROUS AUSTRALIANS.

MAKE LIVERPOOL A NOBLE GIFT,

j Everybody who knows Liverpool 'knows Lewis. It is a huge emporium for the purchase of cheap goods, and you can buy anything there from a suite of furniture to a penny toy. The founder of this business was one David Lewis, who died a few years ago, leaving a huge sum for his two Australian nephews, Messrs B. W. Levy and George Cohen, to spend, much as they chose. They generously decided the'fortune must.be dissipated chiefly in good work's in Liverpool and Manchester, where the money had beer, made, and .on Friday last the first of their efforts, a Central Home for Dis- : trict Nurses, was declared open. j The Lord Mayor of Liverpool entertained a large party to lunch at the Town Hall prior to the ceremony, which was to have been performed by Mr William Rathbone, the founder, i (forty years ago) of District Nursing {in | Liverpool. Unfortunately, this j veteran philanthropist was too ill to : be present, so that Mrs Rathbone had to receive the silver key which was to '■ have been delivered to him, and a j nephew, Mr H. R. Rathbone, to read the address he had specially prepared. As the speeches dealt principally wth the history and progress of District Nursing, I fear they would have little interest for you, though the 1 story of a movement which began with one woman half a century ago and today provides succour for nearly 6000 cases is remarkable enough. Mr B. M. Levy, who presided at the opening ceremony, was most cordially received, and made a capital speech. The generous colonist said it was a great gratification to him to welcome them there that day. When, some years ago, the late Mr David Lewis bequeathed his property to Mr George Cohen and himself, they were both resident in Australia, and they decided to_ devote the whole of the money for the benefit of the poor and suffering, especially of the cities of Liverpool and Manchester- Mr George Cohen was still resident in Australia, and he had given full power to him (the chairman) to dispose of his portion of the legacy as might seem most advantageous to the purposes and aims they had in view. Altlioug-b. an. Australian, he was not ft. stranger to that city, as forty years ago he came from abroad, and was at various schools here. It was, there- , fore, with the greatest satisfaction that he found himself able to do something to help the poor of the city of which he had such early and happy recollections, but he felt he had not enough knowledge of the locality to assume the whole responsibility of utilising the legacy, so he consulted the citizens of Liverpool and Manchester as to what would confer the greatest benefit on those they wished to aid. The first whom he consulted was Sir Arthur Forwood. He then consulted Mr T. H. Ismay, Mr William Rathbone, Mr Louis Cohen, and Col. Hall Walker, and they then formed the David Lewis Trust. Two .of those gentlemen had been taken from them, . and to the memory of Sir Arthur Forwood he wished to pay this tribute of regard. He was the first to whom he made known his wishes, and he remained to the end the most helpful of his colleagues and friends. He (the chairman) would have rejoiced indeed to have had him at his side that day to see the completion of the work. The system of district nursing was due to the happy thought and practical piety of one man, and that was Mr William Rathbone. Forty years ago he started that work by engaging for three months a nurse to visit the sick and suffering* poor in their'homes. One month after beginning* her work the nurse asked.to be relieved from her duties, as she could' not bear to see the squalor and misery with which she was daily brought in contact. It was sometimes thought that the training of nurses for work amongst the poor was a modern'development, but Hildegarde, Abbess of Rupertsburg, organised in the 12th century a school for nurses, and tha rule's drawn up for its government when the ancient hospital of St. Bartholomew', in London, was refounded in 1546, provided for a matron and twelve sisters for the service of the poor. They were aware of the incepHon of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institution for Nurses. In 1887 the Queen, with that appropriateness which had always distinguished the most womanly of women, as well as the sovereign of the great Empire over which she ruled, decided to devote the bulk of the money raised by the women of England in honour of her jubilee to the cause of nursing the sick poor in their own homes. Of the sum collected, Her Majesty decided 'that £76,000 should be expended in • forming an institution for the education and maintenance during training of nurses, whose business should be to attend to the sick.-pbor in their own homes. Subsequently, ny Royal charter, the Jubilee Nursing Institution for Nurses Was constituted. In 1899 there were 461 different nurses' associations affiliated with it, and .721 Queen's nurses at work. This meant that 96,000 cases were nursed in the twelve months, necessitating* over two million visits. It may not be generally known that the present Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Mr Cohen, is a native-born Australian, his father at one time being a,member of the Assembly of the Mother Colony. •