MISSIONARY APPEAL

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 2

MISSIONARY APPEAL

Annual Market In City

“Although the Leper Trust Board has given us a ship for medical tours, and the hospital at the leper coloney can take 90 patients. I am nervous to do too much as we would use up our drugs too quickly,” said Dr. G. Thomson, when he opened the annual missionary market in the Durham Street Art Gallery yesterday morning. Dr. Thomson, medical superintendent of the Fauabu Hospital and Leprosarium in the Solomon, Islands, spoke of the conditions in the islands.

“Nearly all the people in the Solomon Islands have malaria at some time or other, and many suffer other diseases,” said Dr. Thomson. “We hope to extend our work in the islands, and 30 nurses are being trained at present. There are usually about 45 patients in the leper hospital and about one is cured and able to return home each month.

“We try to keep up with the times, but there is little transport as yet in the islands. We walk wherever we go, carrying baggage on our backs. The Government is providing a 40-mile road with bridges, and two gifts each of £5O have been received from Dunedin towards the purchase of a utility vehicle,” said Dr. Thomson.

Models of the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauabu were on display in the hall during the day There were also examples of Melanesian handcrafts and native tools, among them woven belts, moulded bowls, bone fish hooks, plaited cane fish traps, and canoe paddles. The market raised about £lOOO.