MAKOGAI LEPERS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 106, 1 November 1930, Page 8

MAKOGAI LEPERS

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

APPEAL FOE THE SUFFERERS The time has come for the sending of Christmas gifts for the 440 lepers on Makogai Island. These may be sent to the Secretary, Cook Island Department, Parliament Buildings, up to Friday, 14th inst., for dispatch by the Niagara, which leaves Auckland on the 18th November. The parcels will thus reach Makogai shortly before Christmas. One very important factor in the cure of leprosy is the cheerful recreation of the patients. It is felt in this respoct that the kindness of the people of New Zealand has been helpful. As a guide to those sending gifts, it may be stated that of the 440 patients, about 100 are women; there are 30 girls from three to 18 years, and some- 23 boys from three to 17 years. The following articles will be especially useful.and greatly appreciated:— White calico and all kinds of material for dresses, embroidery cotton (different'colours), embroidery silk, ribbons, wool; pillow cases, and covers for beds; needles, crochet hooks, scissors, belts, embroidery rings; tools, pipes, tobacco, toilet soap, sw-cets, and toys for little children. Money is also acceptable for distribution as prizes to the patients. In a report just to hand from by-Dr. J. AY. Hunt, acting-chief medical officer, Suva, he says: —"During the year S8 lepers were admitted to the Central Leper Hospital at Makogai. Twenty were discharged on parole, and five unconditionally. The work of all connected with the treatment of these patients has been, as always, beyond praise. In such work the qualities of sympathy, tactfulness, and understanding are required in high degree, and the institution is fortunate indeed in possessing a staff in whom these qualities are so marked." The medical superintendent (Dr. E. A. Neff), whose treatment of leprosy has been so successful as to attract the attention of the medical officers of other leper stations, writes as follows of the work of the French nursing Sisters of the Third Order of Mary:—"One has to be here, day after day, to understand what "the nursing Sisters mean to Makogai, and to know how impossible it would be to do without them. No tributo that I can give can in any way bo sufficient for the work the Reverend Mother and Sisters do here."