A NOBLE WORK

Evening Star, Issue 19375, 8 October 1926, Page 2

A NOBLE WORK

<>-■■■ ST. JOHN AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION'S ANNUAL MEETING A good idea of tlio width and worth of the work of the St. John Ambulance Association was conveyed last night in the speeches made at the annual meeting, hold in the it.S.A. rooms and presided over by Mr J. J. Clark. The Chairman moved the adoption of the thirty-seventh annual report of the association, widely gave in briefest outline an account of the wide and varied work of the organisation. The association’s important work, he said, was to train people to be able to give first aid. in Dunedin 12,593 bad been trained in first aid and 3,255 in home nursing. One had only to go to football matches and race meetings to sec an example of the self-sacrificing and able work of the members of the association. This year they had had the benefit of the new Austin ambulance. During the year the ambulance had covered 8,265 miles, and carried 1,087 patients. Thanks were due to the driver and his assistant, and to Superintendent A. G. Napier (of the Dunedin Fire Brigade), for it was duo to them that the transport work was carried out with a despatch unequalled elsewhere in Now Zealand. One day the speaker was at a Fire Board meeting, and, hearing the bell sound, ho made inquiries, to find that within two and a-half minutes the ambulance motor had started on a journey of over 100 miles. Then their three nurses were over going about the town on errands of mercy and of aid. The hospital hostess was a unique idea, and a successful one. The brigade had taken a new lease of life, and the services of its members ivere appreciated by all the public, and the members of the nursing division were always ready when they were wanted. The station set up at the Exhibition had done great work, for there were many accidents, some serious, others not. The Exhibition directors had shown their gratitude by giving a donation to the funds of the association. The association had also taken part in the raising of money for the radium fund, and, helped by its Invercargill branch, had collected £7,775. The astonishing thing about the work was that it was carried out at an expenditure of only £2,000 a year. More money was, however, required, and it was hoped that private donors would give more liberally. The Rev. V. 6. Bryan King seconded the motion. He paid a warm tribute to the work pf the hospital hostess, who was a friend to every patient in time of need, and he referred to the association’s services at the Exhibition. The Rev. 6. E. Moreton complimented the secretary, Mr Rogers, on his work. He said, too, that if an organiser were appointed the work of the association could be extended into the country, where, particularly in sawmilling places and the like, the risk of accident was a thing to be heeded. The speaker remarked that they owed the hospital hostess idea to Dr Falconer. A demonstration of first-aid methods was given by members of the nursing division.