GIRLS ADOPT BABY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29260, 19 July 1960, Page 17

GIRLS ADOPT BABY

School Mascot In South Solomons

An unwanted baby whose mother had died in childbirth and who was named Luke Twomey, after Mr P. J. Twomey, secretary of the New Zealand Lepers’ Trust Board, is now the pet and mascot of the Anglican Girls’ District School at Bunana, in the British South Solomons.

This latest news of his namesake has reached Mr Twomey from a New Zealand teacher, Miss Mary Hunt, who was on furlough in Bunana when Luke arrived there last February. Miss Hunt writes that Luke, who was rescued from squalor and neglect by the crew of the mercy ship Tauabu Twomey, is now 20 months old and has grown strong and healthy, although at the moment he is beset by teething troubles. For his first few months Luke had lived almost solely on coconut water and when rescued and brought to Bunana his condition was precarious. He then weighed only 61b, although four or five months old. “Perhaps this explains why he is taking so long to walk,” said Miss Hunt. However, Luke has recovered from his bad start and now weighs 251 b and is very contented and full of fun. “AH he has to suffer now is the ministrations of various senior girls in the school as they take turns in learning to look after him,” said Miss Hunt “But he seems to thrive on this treatment” she adds.

Mr Twomey said that many other sick and unwanted babies in the islands of Melanesia had not been as fortunate as Luke Twomey and this story emphasised the necessity for aid for'mothers and their babies in this part of the world. “The Lepers’ Trust Board will build ■ more clinics, more dispensaries, more hospitals to the limit of its resources for this work.” said Mr Twomey. “I have seen the necessity for myself. Many unwanted children are abandoned in these islands, and many mothers die through ignorance and lack of ordinary care.”