St. John Ambulance

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13120, 22 August 1940, Page 4

St. John Ambulance

SMALL ATTENDANCE

The annual meeting of the Tauranga branch of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, was held in the Ambulance Hall yesterday evening, and was presided over by the President. His Worship the Mayor, Mr L. R. Wilkinson. Only a small attendance of members was present.

President’s Report

The President presented the following report for the year ended 30th June, 1940:

“In spite of the numerous other activities consequent to the war, the excellent work of the Ambulance still goes on. We take pride in reviewing another year of successful operations and services rendered to the community.

“We are, however, faced with a serious problem of shortage of personnel in the Men’s Division. Mr. Dinsdale, the Superintendent of the Men’s Division reports that his Division is very seriously handicapped by want of recruits. This Division has never been as strong as it should be, but owing to numerous recent transfers and enlistments, the Division has fajlen well below the number essential to enable it to carry out its functions efficiently. There are innumerable calls for attendance on Ambulance cases, for public duty on the playgrounds, beaches and numerous other places where their services may be needed, and the result is that the very few men left have to turn out on practically every occasion and they get no respite. This obviously cannot continue, for long, and unless some effort is made very soon to secure additional recruits, it is even probable that the Division will not.be able to carry on. “The reluctance of the young men to join this unit is hard to understand. Apart from the humanitarian services which they are trained to render to the community, their training is invaluable in their own homes and I would like to make a strong appeal to the young men of Tauranga to ’come forward and help in this admirable work. The situation is temporarily caused through the formation of an Ambulance Auxiliary Corps in connection with* the Legion of Frontiersmen, but the Ambulance must be maintained at proper strength as a separate unit, especially under present conditions. “Old Ambulance. —The fate of the old Ambulance for some time hung in the balance. The Committee would very much have liked to retain this vehicle as a reserve for use in emergency cases when the new vehicle was out on, duty,, but, after mature consideration, it was decided that the expense involved in insurance and upkeep, and the heavy depreciation in tyres etc. involved by laying the ambulance idle, would be too great and it was decided to sell the vehicle. After advertising the sale the best offer received was £ 30 and the Committee decided to let it go at that.

“Maternity Cases. —Owing to the inauguration of free maternity benefits under the Social Security scheme, it was found that the Ambulance was being repeatedly called out to convey patients to the Te Puke Hospital, and in most cases the patients refused to pay for transport 'charges, holding that as they were entitled to free attendance at the Hospital, free transport should also be provided. This at first presented a serious problem as the present voluntary support of the Ambulance would not stand the heavy work these calls would entail. The Association however, decided to put their difficulties before the local medical practitioners and appeal to them to restrict calls on the ambulance essentially to cases where such means of transport was absolutely necessary. The Association has not yet appealed to the medical profession in vain and we think this problem has now been solved by the characteristic co-operation of the medical men.

■ “Garage.—The provision of suitable accommodation for the new Ambulance presented 'considerable difficulty which was eventually solved by the Committee making a grant of £2O to Mr. Simons toward the cost of extending his garage to provide suitable accommodation to house the ambulance. . , “Centennial Baby Contest. —The local Branch participated in the Centennial Baby 'Contest, and although the local response was far from satisfactory it is understood that this Branch will benefit financially to a considerable extent. This is mainly due to Mrs. R. H. Faulkner who has', throughout the local and district contests, devoted considerable time in attending the theatre screenings and supervising the voting. “Street Collection.—ln view of the fact that the public had responded so generously during the previous year to our appeal for funds to purchase a new ambulance, and to the fact that thepe were at present so many calls for patriotic purposes, this Association decided not to worry the public this year with , a street collection, hence the annual collection was abandoned. “Sick and Wounded Fund.—Six members of this Association were coopted with members of the Red Cross to constitute the Joint Council for the Sick and Wounded Fund Appeal, and everyone is acquainted with the phenomenal success this appeal met with in this district.

“Membership Subscriptions.— It was decided to form three categories of Association members as follows: ta) Associate members 5s p.a. (b) Member entitled to free ambulance for himself 10s,p.a. , (c) Member eiir titled to free ambulance for himself and household, £1 p.a. “The business people of Tauranga have invariably staunchly supported this work by annual subscriptions, but in an effort to enlist the support

ANNUAL MEETING OF LOCAL BRANCH

of the private, ciiiz’ens °on ■ : weru hilt Ihe res„m!- Cili^ ' uol ’! oral,K ’ a dozei ers being soi-ureu. L'his atmE ° SCrtl ' pan oi the public is hard , J - siaiui. and snows me people appreciate tue worn oi ui w l,J * ; llun - lor ’•? well known thnr u> 1 oers of the Divisions are • ? | any hour of the dav or iali »t 1 they spend several nights V*’ studying and practicing to f the standard 0 f their effici P ni? P ** that they are on duty at an V a5 < Junctions where there is an . fßsii s l.m,y o( their services being ed. there seems to he why only the business comm? 505 should be called on to maim in' service, or that the divisions?J b 5 be hampered in their acUvitiw nld lack of funds. It is not posSbh- 1 the Association to approa Ch ble lor individual and it is still hopVlK members oi the general pnhiu ,t 1 come forward and enroll n J,' :li of the above categories of n ship and thus give the movement their material support.” mect . “Ambulance Cases.-The folk, mg analysis will show the extent . the calls on the ambulance djrti the past year:— uria S * Trips Miles Auckland :> . Hamilton c ~*■ Waihi J u 1 Katikati 7 Te Puke I' 27 £ Tauranga and Suburbs 101 r Mt. Maunganui 4 150 400 S Although this phase of the Association’s activities does not receive any publicity, these figures show that the ambulance does an average of three trips a week, and the mileage works out to an average of 11 miles a day for every day of the year.” In addition to his report, the President spoke of the wonderful work being done by the Brigade, not only in New Zealand, but other parts of the. world. He illustrated his remarks with wliat he had seen at the Anzac Day celebrations this year la Sydney, when countless cases at the Dawn Parade were immediately and efficiently treated by the members of the Brigade in attendance. Being so* impressed, continued Mr Wilkinson, he felt compelled to write and convey his appreciation for the work that had been done, and read the following reply he had received from the Sydney District Superintendent, Mr A. S. Wilkinson. “The secretary of the St. John Ambulance, Commander R. GriffithsBowen, has handed me your letter of the 26th April, 1940, conveying your appreciation of the services by the Brigade in Sydney on Anzac Day. 1 “It is not very often we receive a letter of this nature, and we appreciate very much your kind wishes which we heartily reciprocate to all our Brothers and Sisters of the Order in New Zealand.” Appreciation of the tremendous amount of hard work put in by the members during the time of the Slick and Wounded Joint Appeal, was also referred to by Mr A. J. Gallagher, who pointed out that their reward was no doubt amply gained through the excellent response which had been made throughout the district. x On the motion of Mr E. T. Baker, and seconded by Mr Faulkner, the report was adopted. Finances The economical and yet unstinted working of the Association was revealed in the comprehensive statement of accounts presented by the Treasurer, Mr A. J. Gallagher, showing a balance in excess of expendture for the year of £45 7s 3d. Out of the total income of 19s 7d the bulk is taken up with tw running of the ambulance,, w 1 • though a costly item, was one paramount importance to the P of Tauranga and district. The report was adopted. Election of Officers The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:— _ Patron —-Mr F. W. Doidge. M.D President — His Worship Mayor, Mr L. R. Wilkinson. Vice-Presidents-, Messrs Newsham, G. G. Norris, . and E. T. Baker; Women s Du' Misses Moore, McKenna, * e ■> and Mrs R. H. Faulkner. .■ Division. Superintendent > • dale, Superintendent R- ’ Mr Boyce and Mr J. Penn. Secretary—Mr L. Warde. Treasurer —Mr A. J- Bal ® Auditor —Mr E. T. Baker. „ Chairman of Committees—' , T. Baker. _ -ifpcdpin^ General Committee p flm erob Simons and Riggir, n d EdPattie, Butts, Boyce, Weir and voy Jones.

General . In view of the lack of _ ,n^ e the hope was expressed t pleted ranks would o through the members of tn _ ffj]o of Frontiersmen defence fo r {niDg were at present undergoing .jauntier the au'spices of tn ti0 A vote of thanks to Plenty Times for P ublic „L I fl e d tJlf throughout the year concia business.

Reports from the differ f es of the Association will app morrow.