GIFTS FOR LEPERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 161, 10 July 1945, Page 3

GIFTS FOR LEPERS

SUPERINTENDENT'S THANKS A most appreciative letter from Dr. C. J. Austin, medical superintendent of Makogai Leper Station in Fiji, has been received by Mr. Darcy L. Thomas, 9, Gladstone Road, Mount Albert, in gratitude for gifts for the lepers received periodically during the past months. -For 23 years Mr. Thomas has taken a kteen interest in the welfare of the lepers. About two years ago, on the formation of the New Zealand Leper Trust in Christchurch, he abandoned the major part of his work, which he had organised most successfully for 20 years. Every November he had sent to Makogai consignments of up to 100 cases of Christmas gifts. These were carried freightfree by the Union Company and all work entailed in preparing them was done without charge.

Mr. Thomas has not associated himself with the Leper Trust, but contributors and donors of long standing, appreciating his work, have continued to send him presents for the lepers.

•In his letter to Mr. Thomas, the medical superintendent said goods from New Zealand were so spaced out owing to shipping shortages that it "was impossible to know where each consignment came from. He assured Mr. Thomas that all at the leper station were extremelygrateful for his continued sympathy and practical interest.

"The gifts," wrote Dr. Austin, "are, of course, more appreciated now than they have ever been, both because so many kinds of goods are difficult or even impossible to obtain to-day and because we realise that they must represent real sacrifices on the part of the donors."