ST- JOHN AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION.

Evening Star, Issue 11863, 17 April 1903, Page 3

ST- JOHN AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION.

The fourteenth annual meeting of the Dunedin Centre of the St. John Ambulance Association was held in the Garrisou Mail last night, and attended by a large number of members and citizens. Mr Justice Williams, president of the Dunedin Centre, occupied the chair, supported by Lord Ranftily, president of the New Zealand Head Centre. Seats on the stage were alto occupied by Lord Northland, Colonel Robin, the Mayor (Mr J. A. Park), Colonel De Lautcur, Major Will, Captain Barclay, Messrs M. L. Logie, G. Moir, R. R. Campbell (members of Committee), and Mr J. E. Bone (secretary and treasurer). The leading clauses of the report were as follow; The number of classes held under the Centre this year has been- fairly satisfactory as regards the City, but we regret fhat in the outlying districts of this Centre there is little or no interest being taken in first aid work. With the exception of Tapanui, there have been no classes held in the country districts this year. A determined effort will be made this year to awaken interest in the valuable work of first aid. The classes held in Dunedin were well attended. Dr William Evans lectured to the men’s first aid, Dr W. J. Will to the women’s first aid. and Dr Macpherson to the nursing class. Dr B. E. De Lautour lectured to classes in connection with the Central Mission. The percentage of passes was very satisfactory, and showed that those attending the lectnres had taken the fullest advantage of their instruction. The Ambulance Corps both in Dunedin and f)amam have been able to render efficient first aid in many instances, and although we nave not so far had ,any serious public calamity to test their efficiency, yet in many single cases the members have been enabled by their knowledge to do that which is necessary pending the arrival of the medical man. The Nursing Corps continue their pood work, and when required can_ always be relied upon. Dr Barnett ha' again laid the Centre under obligation bv tbe great interest he takes in this branch of the work. It is desired to draw the attention of the community to the fact that in Christchurch and Wellington the Association have up-to-date ambulance carriages fo" the conveyance of injured patients from their homes to the hospital or where required. The Committee intend -to take steps to have one in Dunedin, and trust that the public will assist them in this matter. The Chairman apologised for the absence of Bishop Nevill, Dr Gibb, and the Hon. H. Pinkerton, and then spoke thus: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the fourteenth meeting of our St. John Ambulance Association. From a very small beginning it has become a really great institution in your midst. I do not this evening propose to discuss the aim and objects of the Association. These are known perfectly well to you all. The Association is subject to the grand priory of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England. Of that His Majesty the King is sovereign head and patron. I regret very much that, owing to unavoidable circumstances. His Majesty is prevented from being present in person this evening, but wo have a most excellent sub-stitute—-we have Bis Majesty’s representative, His Excellency the Governor.—(Applause.) His Excellency Ls closely connected with the Association, because—and I trust I give him his title aright—he is a Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to which we are affiliated. His Excellency has been long with us, and we look upon him as quite a New Zealander. In fact, I think it may be safely said that he knows a great deal more of the colony of New Zealand than nine out of ten New Zealanders do. Wherever there is a good work on hand, there His Excellency is to be found. Unfortunately, at some time nr other His Excellency will have to leave ns, but wherever he goes he and Ladv Bauftrly will have our good wishes following them, and he will leave behind him a memorial for all time in the Veterans’ Home which he has founded.—(Applause.) The report, ladies end gentlemen, is in vonr hands, and I will not go through it. There is a great deal to be done this evening. I will simply conclude bv moving tbe adoption of the report. Those in favor sav Ave.”—(A chorus of “ Ayes.”) The report is therefore adopted. I wifi now ask HE Excell»ncv to be kmd enmmb to present thf* arid —(Applause.) Lord Banfnrly (hen made He pre<-enta-Hons, the recipients being called np by Mr Bone accorelmg to the fofiowinc list; The fofiowincr is He „r

Women's ATedallions,— Misses Elizabeth L. Armlpzarth, ALrtmret L. Annle-arth. Lily DonH, 'NTqrr Dowie. Harriet- Fisher Eleanor M. G-iinsfnrd, Laura AT Af„; r ' Isabel AT. M-Fwan, Janet C. MTCeehmV. Mary E. Ritchie. Annie M. j PS^e Stewart, Ethel May Simon, Afay C.'Simon, Elfrida J. Williams. Tapanui • Mrs Jessie Colnnhoun, Alisses Annie Alackenzie, Janet K. Mackenzie.

Alen’s ATedallions.—William Alexander, David H. Gilmour, Lonis E. Nees, John C. Loan. Laurence Laurenson, John Watson. No. 2 Companr Garrison Artillery Volunteers: P.O. J. E. Davis, LeadiinD. Fraser. Gunner Henrv Dndfield Gunner George Garbutt, Conner John E. Warrington. Gunner John Jack. Dunedin Engineer Volunteers: Corporals A. E. Bragg, C. C. Etheridge, G. A. Roach, F. Mulligan, Lance-corporal W. Ellis, Corporal A. D. Smith, trance-corporal H. Baird, Sapper W. Hook. Tapanui: John Shind. Women’s Nursing.—Aliases L. AT. Aitche--Bon, Catherine Bruce, Hilda B'air, At. Buchanan, J. C. Christie, R. B. Ferguson, Mary A. L. Hartley, Margaret Hall, Amy E. Lill, Janet M‘Donaid, E. MTie, F. M‘Fie, Mrs Aletcalfe, AI. 0. M'Caw, Janet Neilson, Loroa Rattray, Lucy Rattray, Mrs A- Smith, Miss J. Samson. Women’s First Aid.—Aliss AI. J. Young, Mrs J. J- Wilson, Misses E. J. White, B. Skip worth, E. Shaw, F. Stewart, E. Reynolds, M. Roseveare, E. S. Paterson, A. E. Niven, Alice Aluir, J. E. Al'Farlane, E. M‘Phee, Sister Marie, Jane Alerritt, Nellie T. Liddle, F. Knowles, J. Jones, Alinnie Freeman, Airs C. Evans, Alisses E. Clark, V. Calder, AI. Calder, Jessie Campbell, E. Chapman, L. Chapman, Sister Glare, J. Alexander, AI. T. Anderson, Airs A. Paterson, Mrs P. Simms, Miss J. Knutsford. Alen’s Advanced Aid.—R. W. Davies, W. Smart, T. Begg. Men’s First Aid.—H. E. Barth, S. V. Bryant, J. Downes, W. Fleming, W. M. Hogg, C. Heycock, J. Johnson, J. M‘Kenzie, J. Turnbull, E. J. Webb, J. A. Webb, W. J. Harvey, F. W. Joseph. Engineers. Advanced : Sapper G. Moodie, Sapper J. Brown, Sapper J. Stewart, Sergeant A. Miles. Engineers.—First Aid: Sappers A. T. Mowat, A. W. Mulligan, Lieutenant J. T. Midgley, Sappers W. J. Foote, R. Rae, J. W, Clarke.

Engineer Cadets.—Advanced : Cadets J. Jones, J. 0. M'Kay, Sergeant G. Andrews, Cadet T. M'Quillan, Corporal J, W. Timlin, Corporal C. Bragg, Sergeant L. Ross, Sergeant-major W. Burley. Engineer Cadets.—First Aid: Sergeant J. Hill, Cadet D. T. M'Kenzie, Cadet W. Fuller.

Garrison Artillery No. 2 Company.—Gunners J. S. Morrison, R. W. M’Culloch, R, Slater, J. B. Nicol.

His Excellency spoke as follows: Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,—l can as-* sure you it always gives me pleasure to be present at any distribution of certificates and medals belonging to the St. John Ambulance Society.—(Applause.) There is one thing I particularly noticed to-night in this distribution, and that is that there are such a number of cadets who have got the advanced aid certificate.—(Applause.) I think they are deserving of special credit. Very many people take up this St. John Ambulance work and go through the first course. That is good, and it can hurt no one to learn the first elements of first aid; but I would venture to point out that it is very much better, having obtained the first aid certificate, to go on and get advanced aid. No one knows at what time in their life an accident may happen at their door, possibly to their nearest and dearest, and it is most useful to be able to place the person afflicted in the most comfortable position, and to do everything possible until you get a doctor. —(Applause.) You must always remember tih* Si. John Ambulance Society has never

meant to keep the doctor out; on the contrarJ. urn St. John Ambulance Society would never have existed in its present form had it not been for the kindness o! the medical profession in gratuitously teach' ing classes.— (Loud applause.) To the doctors of this City and to the doctord throughout the British Empire the St. John Ambu lance Association owes the deepest gratitude, and w e know the St. John Ambulance Association tries to return its erratitude by sending patients to the hospital in a better condition than the doctors wen accustomed to receive them before. The object is to save an injured person pain, not to cure. A little knowledge is often dangerous, but to be able tc send a person to the nearest medical authority in such a state that he will be fit tc be dealt with by the doctor is knowledge well worth acquiring. I know of many instances in this colony where men have been struck down in the bush. I have known working men who have been bushfelling in a district throw down their axes, not knowing how to give assistance, and carry a man down forty or fifty miles on some occasions; but without the knowledge of how to carry the man that man must have suffered excruciating agonies. Many have done so. But even in the bush in the North Island the St John Ambulance Association has made its mark, because talking with doctors in the North Island they tell me there had been a marked difference in the way patients have been brought to them.—(Applause.) I take the very deepest interest in the advancement of the St. John Ambulance Association. I was looking only to-day at some figures that appeared about a year ago which I would have said were incorrect, as I should have said they were altogether far below the mark. I find that the St. John Ambulance Association has over 500,000 people who lave obtained first aid certificates. I was under the impression it was far more. The St. John Ambulance Brigade at present consists of 12,000 men—that is, thoroughly trained men, and 2.000 women—that is to say, nursing sisters. Over 2,000 weut out from the head office in Clerkenwell, St. John’s Gate, to South Africa. Seventy died there. I have spoken to many troopers who have been out in South Africa with our contingents, aud from one and all of those that have seen the inside of our hospitals I have heard the very best report as regards the St. John Ambulance Volunteers that worked out there. I may inform you that I know of many who volunteered in the time of the South African War, men in good positions, earning their £3OO to £4OO a year, who threw it up and accepted Is 6d a day I think that is the figure in the medical army hospital service with a view to assisting the wounded in South Africa.—(Applause.) I only mention this to point out that we are a philanthropic society. What we want to do is to ameliorate suffering. We are anxious to do the best we can to assist our fellow-creatures. Such has been from the beginning the idea, the intention, and the action of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of which I have the honor to be a member. That Order was founded in the year 1023 by a band of Italian merchants, extremely poor, from the town of Amalfi, close to Naples. They went to Jerusalem, and they gave up their lives to found and attend to the hospice or hotel for the purpose of taking in the pilgrims visiting the Holy Sepulchre. Times changed at Jerusalem t and it was found that the pilgrims were being attacked on their way to and from Jerusalem, and these monks—because it was a monkish Order in those days—had to buckle on the sword and escort the pilgrims to and from Jerusalem. Attacks became more serious, and though they still kept the hospice at Jerusalem, they gradually by necessity developed into an Order of chivalry. The Order grew chiefly on account of the Crusades. In the time of the Crusades, under Richard Co?ur de Lion, the knights of the Order of St. John of Jersualem were well to the fore. Godfrey de Bouillon is a name well known in history as one of the heads of the Order of St. John. They were always found fighting for the Cross against the Crescent. Jerusalem aud the Holy Sepulchre were eventually lost, and the last stand was made at the famous siege of Acre, from which a few of the knights of the Order managed to escape. From Acre they went to Rhodes, and for 200 years kept the Mussulmans back from overrunning Christendom, which was the great danger of that day. Eventually they had to evacuate Rhodes; but they had held it with honor —20,000 had withstood 200,000 —and for two centuries they had kept the Mediterranean Sea virtually clear from pirates. The Order’consisted of many nationalities. There were, I believe, seven langues, as they were called—England, Arragon, Castile Italy, France, and others. These langues all had different parts of the wall to keep, and it is a curious thing in these days to think, when you see the jealousies of the different nations, that these langues used to live together in absolute peace, vicing with each other in their endeavors to gain honor and glory to their especial langue in their fighting, and in preserving each its special part of the wall in lime of siege. But eventually they were turned out from Rhodes, as I said, and from there went to Malta, which was given them by the Emperor Charles V. It was only a remnant that went there, but that remnant held Malta up to the time that Napoleon left France for Egypt, with a view, we believe, of taking India. That, I think, was quite the end of the eighteenth century. I only mention this to show you what an ancient Order it was. In the old days the knights of the Order of St. John had their hospice at Jersualem, where they treated pilgrims for illness, and fed them. Here, at the present day, we of the Order of St. John have our hospital at Jerusalem, at which last year we treated 2,300 persons.—(Applause.) It is a curious thing to think of that. It was an Order of charity in the old days; it is an Order of charity now. You may make a simile of Great Britain and her colonies with regard to this Order. There is the Order of St. John at the head, the hospital of Jersualem a colony in one place, the St. John Ambulance Association a colony within all the colonies of the Empire, there is the St. John Ambulance Brigade everywhere, there are»tho nursing institutions—l believe the Red Cross was founded by the Order of St. John—and there is the almoners’ department of the Order, which assists poor convalescents. Then there are the medals that are given out by the Order of St. John for bravery—not bravery on the battlefield or on the water, the one being honored by the King and the other by the Humane Society, but bravery in other ways. There is many a brave action done that people do not consider, such as that of the man who goes down a mine to rescue another, the man who stops runaway horses at the risk i f his life, or the man who at imminent risk drags away another from the front of the express train to his own injury. All these the Order of St. John recognises.—(Applause.) And the head of our Order, as the chairman has told you, is His Majesty the King; and the head of our chapter is His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, with whom the real work now rests. I have mentioned all these things because I want to point out what a deep interest 1, as one of that Order, and who have been so for many years before I came to this colony, take in the work that is going on. This ambulance work is work that is most useful. It is bearing a great fruit, and the St. John Ambulance Association is, I believe, one of the strongest associations at the present moment in our Empire. I can assure you it has given me great pleasure to come here and take part in the distribution of these prizes.—(Prolonged applause.)

The Chairman said he was sure that all present thanked His Excellency for the address he had given—an address which showed conclusively what good work the society did.—(Applause.) Dr Will announced a demonstration programme, and spoke briefly as to the value of the work done. The Garrison Band, conducted by Lieutenant George, played wl flst the stage was being prepared, and the curtain then rose on a series of interesting scenes. First the meeting saw the imitation of a street accident. A man slipped on a piece of orange peel, and was quickly attended to by passers-bv, who made splints and a stretcher from the handiest every-dav articles, and smartly bound up the patient in readiness for his carryinat to the doctor. The next exhibition was

by the Engineers. They had been fired upon and some of their number wounded, and in the absence of a bearer corps the unhurt men had to attend to the wounded and carry them off under escort. The next exhibition showed wounded men upon the field, and on the bugle-call the bearer company entered and attended to the injuries of the men in the accepted military style, after which they were removed from the field. Finally the Dunedin Nursing Corps, led by Miss Hooper, gave a demonstration of bandaging, bed-making, etc., under the direction of Dr Harnett. This was specially interestin', and many ireful hints were embodied in the nurses’ operations. The proceedings ended with the plavinnof the National Anthem by the Garrison Band.