HOSPITAL AUXILIARY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1927, Page 10

HOSPITAL AUXILIARY

A NEW MOVEMENT

WILL ASSIST IN MANY WAYS

"Great oaks from little acorns spring," and from two small meetings held recently in Wellington it is possible that a new social service may develop for the good of the community. Several ladies have banded together, and under the title of the Bed Cross Auxiliary intend to establish a canteen in connection with the Public Hospital, and ■in the meantime to busy themselves in various ways to raise money and goods to stock it. The second meeting of the auxiliary was held yesterday in the Red Cross rooms and was an enthusiastic gathering. In the absence of the Hon. Dr. Collins, the organiser, Mrs. E. Wright took the chair. One lady present agreed to hold a card party to start the auxiliary funds, and-later it is hoped to hold a concert or some form of entertainment, for which talent is already Being offered.

The good work of tho ladies engaged in the enterprise has already been proved by the excellent work done in tho supplying of a daily hot meal to necessitous and under-nourished children at the Mount Cook School—a work which has brought very warm praise for the Bed Cross from the headmaster (Mr. F. li. Coombs), the School Committee, and the Education Board. The canteen which it is hoped to open has the approval of the Medical Superintendent (Dr. Macdonald Wilson) and will be stocked with such things as eggs, stamps, fancy. soaps, chocolate, writing materials, and' fruit, which visitors to patients, doctors, and nurses would want to buy. The ladies will take turns at serving at the canteen, and help is. promised from the Junior Bed Cross for more awkward days such as Sundays. A monthly jumble sale and a cake kitchen were among tho means suggested yesterday for raising funds, and the following committee was set up, with Mrs. C. H. Chapman as secretary: Mesdames Fairburn, Kendry, Moore, Wright, and Miss Bown. Captain Galloway (Red Cross secretary) will be treasurer, and from him thoso wishing to join the auxiliary may obtain information regarding its activities. It is not expected that any start will bo made until the new wing of the Hospital is complete, but the ladies will have plenty to occupy themselves in stocking tho cantoen and carrying on such good works as tho distribution of clothes and footwear to poor child-' ren, which was started somo time ago. Tho Junior Red Cross h^s helped very well in this respoct, but more clothes are badly needed. A little mending is also to bo done for the men in tho Rod Cross Hospital, Hobson street. Hospital canteen work is no now departure. It is carried on extensivoly in Australia and in some New Zealand centres. Now it has begun ,in Welling- ' ton, and those who know tho work of the Red Cross will probably agree that it could, not havo been inaugurated by a better society. La3t, but not least, half-a-dozen gen-erously-healthy persons havo offered to come if called for and givo tho blood necessary in transfusion cases. This means that thcro is tho nucleus in Wellington of a blood transfusion corps.