MEMORIAL TO DR. ADA PATERSON

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26735, 20 May 1952, Page 2

MEMORIAL TO DR. ADA PATERSON

BELL FOR GLENELG HEALTH CAMP On Saturday afternoon at Glenelg children’s health camp, Murray-Ayns-ley Hill, a large bell which has been given to the camp as a memorial to Dr. Ada Paterson will be formally received by the chairman (Mr George Burns) and members of Glenelg management committee, and will be rung for the first time. Dr. Paterson, a woman of great ability, quiet dignity and wide sympathies, devoted her life to humanitarian work. While she was an officer of the Health Department and was responsible for the health and social welfare of women and children she was a pioneer in the field of preventive medicine in New Zealand. All through her official life, Dr. Paterson proved herself tactful in her approach to difficult situations, she was practical, thorough and accurate in her investigations and sound hi her judgment and in her recommendations to the Director-General of Health and to his Ministers. On one occasion she represented New Zealand at the League of Nations in Switzerland, and her contribution to the discussions on that occasion won favourable comment from the international press. Fifteen years ago, while still a comparatively young woman. Dr. Paterson died, and some time later a Dr. Ada Paterson Memorial Fund committee was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. M. H, Watt, a former DirectorGeneral of Health. A substantial sum was subscribed by friends and admirers of Dr. Paterson, and the committee decided that the memorial should take the form of bells for children’s permanent health camps, for which Dr. Paterson worked enthusiastically in the earlier days of the health camp movement. Accordingly, a memorial bell has been sent to each of the four larger health camps—Pakuranga (Auckland), Otaki (Wellington). Roxburgh (Otago), and Glenelg. In addition, the committee has supplied health films, suitable for children, and these will be screened regularly at the camps. Relatives of Dr. Paterson, officials of the health camp movement, and friends and benefactors of Glenelg will be invited to attend the ceremony at Glenelg on Saturday.