CURRENT NOTES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25274, 28 August 1947, Page 2

CURRENT NOTES

Miss M. F. Smith, matron at’the Otaki Sanatorium, has been .appointed matron of the Cashmere Sanatorium, subject to the approval of the Minister of Health (Miss M. B. Howard). The appointment was made yesterday by the North Canterbury Hospital Board.

Mr and Mrs David Young, of Dunedin, celebrated the 68th anniversary of their wedding on Tuesday. Mr Young, who is a Scot, landed in Dunedin in 1861 and until his retirement was a well-known farmer on the Otago Peninsula. He is 98 years old and his wife is 88. Both enjoy good health. A resolution expressing appreciation of the action of retailers in instituting voluntary rationing of white wool was carried yesterday at the biennial provincial conference of the Plunket Society. “It is up to the public to do their part in conserving stocks of white wool and not to try to get the wool to knit up into adults’ garments,’’.said Miss K. P. Rapps, Dominion secretary of the society. About 21,000 pounds of white wool was being unloaded in Wellington at present, she said. Only one other quarterly quota would be received this 1 year. It was possible that some white wool would be obtainable from Australia. There were no export restrictions on white wool in Australia, but white flannel was on the prohibited list, she added. The 30 nurses in the employ of the North Canterbury Hospital Board who sat for the State final examination for nurses recently all passed. Two were awarded honours in nursing and dietetics, three honours in nursing, and one honours in dietetics. “Gone are the days when a person wondered if she was worthy to enter the service of the Plunket Society: The question now is whether the society is worthy to have her,” said Miss S. Lusk, nursing adviser of the Plunket Society, when she spoke at the society’s provincial conference held in Christchurch yesterday. Accommodation for nurses was a big problem at present, she said, and was making a very great deal of difference to the question of whether a nurse would enter the service or not. “A good many branches are planning to build flats for the nurses in the future, but we have to do something about the problem in the meantime,” Miss Lusk added. She had found nurses living in very poor conditions and surroundings, she said. Of the 77 branches in New Zealand, 71 now had cars for their nurses. The provision of a car was a definite help in the recruitment of nurses. The society had received a considerable number of applications for training from persons overseas. Six of these applicants would probably commence training next term. Another six would be trained in each of the following two terms. Miss L. Lucas of Nelson (president of the New Zealand Ladies’ Golf Union) and Mrs M. H. Godby (Fendalton) a member of the executive, will visit Hamilton early in October for the Dominion golf championship meeting. An apology for her unavoidable absence was received from the Minister of Health (Miss M. B. Howard) at the provincial conference of the Canterbury and Westland area of the Plunket Society, yesterday. Miss Howard expressed her good wishes for the success of the conference and promised to give sympathetic consideration to any remits which the conference might submit to her.

Mr John Grey, of Milburn, who had a distinguished career in the R.N.Z.A.F. during the war,' winning the D.F.C. and bar, was married in Dunedin last week to Miss Margaret McLean, daughter of the late Mr Hamish McLean, formerly of Waimate, and of Mrs McLean, who is now in England. The bride’s uncle, Mr J. W. Woodhouse, of Racecourse Hill, gave her away, Miss Anne Chapman, West Eyreton, was bridesmaid, and the wedding reception was given by Mis Alan Speight, of Southland, at the Ibome .of .. , Norman Speight, Dunedin. Mr and Mrs John Grey will live in Southland.

The ignorance of the general public regarding the qualifications of the Plunket nurse was commented on yesterday at the Plunket Society’s provincial conference by the society’s nursing adviser (Miss S. Lusk). “During the war when many of our nurses did a good deal of lecturing work, many people thought they were either members of the V.A.D. or Karitane nurses,” she said. “All our permanent staff have completed their general, and maternity or midwifery training, as well as their Plunket training.’*’ Lady Nathan, who arrived in Auckland this week, with her husband, Lord Nathan, Minister of Civil Aviation, and her son, has been a member of the London County Council for 15 years and chairman since March this year. She is the second woman who has been elected chairman, the first being Mrs Lowes, who took offee in the jubilee year of the council just before the war. Of the 140 members of the council, which rules the local affairs of four and a half million persons, 31 are women and four of them are chairmen of such committees as town planning, social welfare, parks and hospitals. “The City Council is always glad to help the Plunket Society,” said the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews) when he officially opened the provincial conference of the Plunket Society yesterday. The society was doing work which meant so much to the welfare of New Zealand, Mr Andrews said. He congratulated it on the progress it was making, and spoke of the work being done by the mobile plunket units. “They are serving remote districts in an admirable way,” he said. An excellent opportunity to secure one or more very smart but inexpensive frocks for your spring and summer wardrobe offers this week at Anthony Andersen, Ltd., the centre for fashionable women’s wear at 81 Cashel street, near the Bridge of Remembrance. This week they have a special selection of very attractive dainty Silk Floral Frocks in all colours—really outstandingly smart—at only 59/6. Sizes S.S.W. to W. And if you are looking for an off-white Spring Coat—something which is very difficult to secure, there is a very nice selection just now at Anthony Andersen, Ltd. Advt. We have just seen some of the loveliest lingerie imaginable . . . just the thing for that trousseau. “Dreamwear” for daintiness in undies. 11 New Regent street.