"THE LOLLY MAN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 198, 22 August 1932, Page 9

"THE LOLLY MAN."

VISITS TO HOSPITAL WATERSIDEES' COMFORT ruwi>. CARRYING CHEER TO THE SICK. In the big room in which Auckland's waterside workers receive their pay are two collection boxes. The lettering on the boxes gives the information that what coins are dropped into them will be devoted to the Waterside Workers and. Seamen's Hospital Comforts Fund. With the money collected on Fridays things such as chocolate, butterscotch, cigarettes and tobacco are bought, and on Sundays the purchases are distributed around the wards of the public hospital. If the watersiders did not regularly contribute to the fund the youngsters who are unfortunate enough to be patients at the Auckland Hospital would never nieet "The Lolly Man." ,

How many Aucklanders are there who know that for over 20 years the men who work the cargo on the waterfront have been contributing to a fund which has for its main object the taking of cheer into the public hospital? Probably very few. Seamen also # contribute to the fund, but it is the watereiders who keep it going. The work is carried on quietly. The men who visit the hospital wear no badges; even the patients are not told the source of the gifts. All contributions to the funds are voluntary and it is left to three men, Messrs. R. Blackson, K. McLeod and D. Owens, to see that the money is wisely spent and the comforts fairly distributed. It was Mr. Blackson who started the fund. He has.been visiting the hospital so long now that he is uncertain just what year it was he began it, but he knows that he has been on the job —he prefers to call it a pleasure—for over 20 years. Both Mr. McLeod and Mr. Owens have assisted him for more than 10 years.

When Times Were Good. ! When times were good and the waterside worker's living was not the uncertain thing it is to-day the distribution of the comforts meant hard work. ] -In those days it was not exceptional j for the collection boxes, when opened after the men had received their pay, to contain as much as £12. That sum was sufficient to purchase a large amount of comforts, and Mr. Blackson and his lieutenants were able to make a bed-to-bed tour of every ward at the hospital. "Sunday was the hardest day in the week for me in those times," said Mr. Blackson this morning. To-day money is not so easily earned on the wharves, and the weekly takings have fallen away considerably, but there are still enough coins dropped into the boxes on pay day to send "the lolly man" on his rounds. Even on Friday last, when the watereiders did not know whether their dispute with the shipowners would mean that they would be idle this week, the collection boxes were not passed by. As soon as all the men had been paid the boxes were emptied and the takings: counted, and yesterday afternoon Mr.! Blackson arrived at the hospital with two well-filled hand bags. In the days when money was more plentiful than it is now it took Mr. Blackson and his assistants over two hours to make their Sunday tour; to-day, when only a few of the wards can be visited each week,,one of the trio alone can get round the beds within the time allowed for visiting. Friends of the Children. It was in the children's wards that the men who distribute the comforts first got their name of "lolly men." To the little patients they are the visitors who never forget to bring something to please their sweet teeth. Sometimes the children are given chocolate, sometimes boiled lollies, sometimes butterscotch. Yesterday the menu was mixed. The youngsters got two cakes of chocolate and a packet of butterscotch. A few weeks ago cakes of scented soap were produced from the visitors' handbags, and yesterday a little girl with her head half hidden in bandages smilingly inquired if there was any more soap. No such question was heard in the boys' ward, but the cakes of chocolate and packets of butterscotch made many a young face light up. To these- youngsters in beds or on crutches it matters nothing where the sweets come from or whom are the men who deliver them. They call their visitors the "lolly men/" and let it go at that.

. When a child is many weeks in the hospital Mr. Blackson and his helpers soon get to know the boy or girl by name, and firm friendships are established. During the many years that: he has been giving his Sunday afternoons to the work Mr. Blackson has come to know of many sad cases, but he does not like to talk of them. He remembers well one little chap who was in the hospital for several years. First he lost one leg and then the other, and he used to wheel himself about in a chair. When the boy's birthday was approaching the nurses, with whom. he was a .great favourite, planned something in the way of a special treat. But Billy,.if his.name was that, died before he could celebrate his party. He was buried on the Sunday _that the "lolly man" would have ha<l an extra cake of chocolate to slip into his hand. -. Comforts For Adult Patients. The comforts which have their origin in the watersiders' pay room are not confined to the children's wards. Visits, although it is not possible to make them every Sunday in these times, are paid to the long wards where the adult patients lie. For the men there are cigarettes and tobacco, in addition to chocolate, and for the women the comforts usually take the form of sweets or fruit. Colour does not count. A Hindoo or a Chinaman gets the same as the white man in the bed beside him. "It's not a job with us; it's a pleasure. Our one regret is that the present times do not allow us to do as much as we used to," said Mr. Blackson this morning. In their distribution of the comforts, he said, the watersiders were given every assistance. "I don't know where you would' find a better lot of people than those who maintain the hospital. And the honorary staff are splendid." Although the public hospital is their main field, Mr. Blackson and his helpers occasionally distribute their comforts elsewhere. The old people at the Costley Homo see them every now and again, and they are not strangers to the inmates of the TB shelters at Epsom. The watersiders' hospital comforts service is regarded by Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, as a splendid one. "Their selfdenial and the quiet way they go about their job is deserving of the greatest praise," he declared to-day. Captain H. H. Sergeant, harbourmaster, is another wh* holds the same opinion.