THE REV. MOTHER MARY JOSEPH AUBERT

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 219, 16 June 1925, Page 10

THE REV. MOTHER MARY JOSEPH AUBERT

Sir,—May I briefly supplement the article in this morning’s Dominion by pointing out that the Rev. Alother Aubert undoubtedly occupies a preeminent position in Wellington as a philanthropist inspired with the faculty of transforming a theoretical aim into a practical reality? Tv.enty-five years ago the Rev. Alother started her wonderful work here for the benefit of those who were suffering from need, sickness, or any other adversity. Her Sisters of Compassion undertook to nurse the maimed, the halt, and the blind, and to do this effectually they attended lectures on “Nursing” by the medical profession, under the auspices of the St. John Ambulance Association. These devoted S : sters passed medical examinations, and were awarded diplomas under the imprimis of viceroyalty. No hospital-trained nurse could surpass them in care, skill, and devotion to patients, nobly carried out in a spirit of self-abnegation, from which a self-seeking element- was cutiiely eliminated. The Rev. Alother Aubert is possessed with an ardent desire to perpetuate the motto: “Profide; pro utilitate honlinuin” (For the faith; for the good of humanity), and she is never at rest unless doing something for the benefit of humanity. One Saturday morning in September, 1919, I met the Rev. Alother in the heart of London, quite unattended in spite c.f the 85 years that she had left behind her, and while walking along Cornhill with her she told me that she had just returned from Italy. During her sojourn in that part of the world she had joined with others in helping people who had been victims of a severe earthquake, and she had helped to rescue alive one poor woman who had been buried in the debris of her former home for several hours, and whose fingers had been nibbled bv vermin

I may add that in the early days of the Wellington District Nursing Guild of St. John the nursing staff of the Rev. Alother Aubert gave invaluable assistance in nursing poor people in their own homes, and in cases of extreme necessity removed the patients to the Buckle Street Home irrespective of creed, class, or politics. Ave ’fater Maria Aubert, Dominus custodiat introitum tuum, et exituni tuum._ I am an Anglo-Catholic in contradistinction to Roman Catholic, but I gladly subscribe niv meed of respect to our honoured mother of the Home of Compassion.— I am, etc., W. B. FISHER. 198 Tinakori Road, June 15, 1925.