NEW ZEALAND ARMY AT HOME

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 155, 28 December 1918, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND ARMY AT HOME

BROCKENHURST AUXILIARY

HOSPITAL

SHELL-SHOCK iCASES— OFFICERS'

AWARDS,

(By H. T. B. Drew, 2nd Lieut.)

Balmer Lawn, the auxiliary hospital to the main*- Brockenhurst Hospital, set apart for the nose, eye; gas, and shell cases, is about a mile from Brockenhurst. The building ia a spacious fourstoried mansion (once an hotel) standing alone, like many fine tourist hotels of Great Britain and Europe. It has fins grounds, now all cultivated and producing vegetables and flowers, with greenhouses that are a blaze of colour. It is peaceful and very still about here, and in the evenings, with the sinking to rest of the summer's sun over the edge of the forest, a holy calm seems to settle upon this woodland scene. No better place could be selected for shellshock cases, which require under the new treatment absolute detachment from any noise or bustle. Here the two hundred odd - patients have quite- as good a time as those at the main Brockenhui'st institution. The nose, eye, and gas cases have special treatment; but one's greatest sympathy goes out to those», terrible wrecks that: shell-shock has wrought. You see them in the early stages, lying mute and staring and helpless, unable sometimes to recognise their best friend _; starting up, awful, at the slightest noise—every sound is a. gun. Then absolute quiet and rest, and nourishing food gradually do their work, apd recovery slowly comes. But afterwards, for long periods, men will break out pitiably into palsied shivering at any undue excitement. Yet even this goes in time. We have a most capable physician here, who has rm.de these cases his special study,. and whose treatment is 'very successful; and the matron ,and her staff are specially selected. These' bed rases, as at Brockenhurst, have their little piles of •• fancywork handy—all except the worst of the shell-shock cases. Billiard tables and all the usual attractions for the men are available in huts erected outside the main building,. OFFICERS' HOSPITAL. Another spacious hotel of much the same type is Forest Park, the officers' hospital, with grounds and gardens laid out on scientific lines, under the principal medical officer. Major Hogg, and producing almost enough vegetables for the hospital, and certainly enough, flowers. Greenhouses, conservatories, and cucumber-frames are amongst the stock-in-trade, yet when we took this place over it was practically a wilderness. Tomatoes and cucumbers are grown with the greatest success. Here on ithe grounds are croquet and tennis lawns, miniature golf-links, and Badminton nets; and inside are billiard tables, so that the patients not disabled are always kept going at something. The people about the district are also very kind to our officers, and do.their best in offers of entertainment.' The spacious building itself is very suitable, and further ward accommodation is provided outside "You can't keep officers tidy!" was.the lament of the P.M.O. ; but there were no distressing evidences of this about the place. Certainly everything looked extremely comfortable —warm fires, cosy arm-chairs, rugs in plenty, and nice thick carpets. X-ray apparatus and operating theatre are on •the latest pattern. At this hospital are also taken officers from the aerodrome adjacent, and any casualties also from the Imperial bombing school at Lyndhurst. • ■■ When, convalescent, New Zealand officers are sent to Avon Tyrrell, a place that lives in the memory, wherft, basking in the sun, roaming thijongh the forest, playing golf or tennis, entertained by charming ladies, or in snooting parties in the forest, the patient's return to" perfect health is all too vapid. Avon Tyrrell is the country home of Lord and Lady Manners, andi these kindly people .and others care very devotedly and entertain very thoroughly our officers who are fortunate' enough to be sent there. . FREE GIFTS. v A line or two to enable an idea to be obtained of the good work the gift section of the Red Cross is doing at Brockenhurst, though their main activities, will be more fully dealt with later. The society has a depot at the hospital, through which goods, drawn by the quartermaster from the central depot at Southampton, are kept. These are indented for according to a list handed in by the matron, and then, the sisters draw on this store each week as the men ask for the stuff. Tlie camp store or depot itself is in the care of voluntary helpers—Mrs. Wilson, of ■ the New Zealand War Contingent Association, London; Mrs. Hargest and Mrs. Singer (Gisborne), and Mrs. Bowerbank (Wellington). All goods here are issued free to the men over and above, their ordnance issues, and are not expected to be accounted for. • Every man on leaving the hospital has certain articles given to him, such as a woollen shirt or undershirt, underpants, and socks. . Then there are all conceivable hospital comforts—slippers, dress-ing-gowns, pillows galore, mittens, mufflers—all sent from .'New Zsaland_ or purchased here with the money raised there. But what I specially desire in this brief reference to draw attention to are the following telling figures of things that are issued free at the hospital. Tlie figures a.re for last March, and are a fair monthly average, viz. :—Cigarettes, (160,000 ; tobacco, 750 tins ; razors, 195 ; soap, 2228 cakes; shaving-soap, 442 pieces ; matches, 4827 boxes ; sweets (almost unprocurable now in Britain), 3391b ;. pipes, 279; envelopes, 21,000; These things are bought in the cheapest market. And it must be remembered -that as much stuff is also issued at onr > other hospitals and convalescent camps. The depot and system at this hospital were started by Padre Macdonald, whose great appeal in New ZeaFand for the hospitals in Egypt will be well remembered. This greatly-honoured Padre is now at Hornchurch. Of the other small auxiliary buildings there is little to write, except that they are picturesquely situated, and tlte> patients cheery and well looked after.