Hospital Great Boon To Sherpas

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31305, 27 February 1967, Page 12

Hospital Great Boon To Sherpas

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 26.

A doctor who returned a fortnight ago from the hospital which Sir Edmund Hillary and his team have built for the sherpas in Nepal has urged continued New Zealand support for the project.

Dr. M. Pearl, a member of Mt Albert Lions Club, was speaking at the annual convention at Northcote of Lions International District 202 A, which extends from Fiji to Pukekohe. Telling delegates how the £BOOO which New Zealand Lions had contributed toward the cost of the hospital had been spent, he said there could be no doubt that the hospital was a great boon to the Sherpa community. It was saving many from unnecessary suffering and even death. He thought there was little chance that the Nepalese Government or any other agency would take over the hospital soon. The sherpas would con-

tinue to help with gifts of food and wood, but they could not pay for expensive drugs and equipment. “So that puts the ball squarely into our court again,” Dr. Pearl said. It had been tentatively estimated that the hospital would cost between £3OOO and £4OOO a year to run.

Mr G. E. Brenssell, of Moa Flat, Heriot, has been selected by the New Zealand Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs to visit Western Australia this year under the sponsorship of the Bank of New Zealand. He will leave early next month. Mr Brenssell has been a member of the Moa Flat Young Farmers’ Club for the last three years.