TREATMENT OF LEPROSY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28155, 19 December 1956, Page 23

TREATMENT OF LEPROSY

N.Z. TRUST BOARD’S WORK PRAISE IN OVERSEAS PUBLICATION High praise for New Zealand’s efforts to treat leprosy among the people of her island territories is given by K. Frank Feldman, writing in the “Contemporary Review” of November. 1956. The work carried out by the New Zealand Lepers’ Trust Board may be regarded as being among the great acts of mercy shown in the world today, he says. “The board extends its charity to all South Pacific islanders. It knows no religious or racial barriers. It does not control leper hospitals but helps in the establishment of leprosy establishments. “The board was legally constituted just before the last war. having been started by Ben C. Pratt, a man of deep charity who went out of his way to collect donations for lepers quarantined on Quail Island. The • force behind the board has been Mr P. J. Twomey who, when he returned from Suva and learnt much of the ravages of leprosy, resolved to devote his life to the struggle against the disease. “At Christchurch, he is known as the Leper Man, and nine years ago his inestimable work was recognised by the award of the Order of the British Empire, and later, of the Medaille d’Or Epidemics, a rare award not previously bestowed on an Englishman. “The administration by the New Zealand Lepers’ Trust Board of Pacific leper stations has been one of the most enlightened enterprises in the British Commonwealth.” says Mr Foldman