CANCER RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20903, 10 July 1933, Page 16

CANCER RESEARCH

THE TRAVIS BEQUEST. GRANT OF £3OO FOR THREE YEARS. A grant of £ 500 a year for three years for the salary of a physicist has been made to the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society, under the provisions of the Travis bequest, according to a statement made by one of the trustees, Mr Herbert Pearce, of Christchurch. The Travis bequest was set up by the will of Mr William Henry Travis, of Christchurch, in July, 1927, the income derived from the residue of his estate amounting to approximately £40,000 being made available to assist in the prosecution of scientific investigations in the Dominion. The investigations were to be applied primarily to discovering remedies and cures for, and in the resisting and eradicating of, cancer and consumption, but Mr Pearce stated yesterday that under the will the trustees have power to devote the income to other diseases, if they consider that cancer and consumption have been satisfactorily dealt with. The trustees have already given an electric knife for internal operations to the Christchurch Hospital at a cost of £290, and have promised another electric knife to the Cashmere Sanatorium authorities for lung operations. Mr Pearce received a letter on Saturday from Mr R. Darroch, of Wellington, secretary to the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society, thanking the trustees for their gift. The letter states that Mr Darroch was directed by the central committee of the New Zealand branch to thank the trustees for their very generous allocation of £SOO a year for three years for the salary of a physicist to the New Zealand branch. At the last meeting of the committee very complimentary references were made by members to the trustees for their publicspirited proposal to help the cancer campaign. Dr. J. S. Elliott, president of the New Zealand branch, has been appointed to continue consultations regarding the gift. One of the conditions of the bequest is that the money shall be expended in New Zealand, and it must be spent on medical research. On that score, Mr Pearce said that the trustees could not make the grant requested by the Sunlight League toward the cost of building a solarium in Canterbury. Such a request was outside the provisions of the bequest.