PLEA FOR ASSISTANCE

Evening Star, Issue 21138, 25 June 1932, Page 22

PLEA FOR ASSISTANCE

NURSES' MEMORIAL FUND COMMENDED TO PATIENTS AND DOCTORS An appeal to patients and the medical profession to financially support the New Zealand nurses’ memorial fund was made by Sir Lindo Ferguson, the president, at the animal meeting of the fund in the Town Hall yesterday afternoon. During the time the fund had been in existence £II,OOO had been distributed to nurses who would otherwise have been in serious distress, said Sir Lindo, in moving the adoption of the annual report. The nurses throughout the dominion were contributing very well out of their small means to the fund, but the patients were not doing all that they should to assist. Public subscriptions had fallen during the year from £SB to £2B. If every patient in , private hospitals who owed his or her life to the devotion of the nurses were to become a life member of Dm fund, at a cost of ton guineas, tlio assistance would make all tho difference in placing the fund on a satisfactory footing. The patients did not seem to recognise the debt they owed to the nurses. Further, tho medical profession did not seem to realise how dependent their work was on the nursing which their patients received. There were 1,200 medical men on the register in New Zealand, and if they gave only one guinea per annum each the fund would be placed in a strong position. At present the fund had an assured income of £1,350, while the commitments were about £1,400. At the committee meeting to ho held subsequent to tho animal meeting three applications for assistance were to be considered, but the fund had no money with which to meet the applications. Seconding the motion, Mr C. Russell Smith said that during the year a very largo number of people came under the control and supervision of nurses, and lie wondered why the nurses themselves by their skill, courtesy, and consideration had not commended the fund to tho patients. If only a few of the patients responded, the fund would be greatly assisted. In one matter, that of publicity, the fund was deficient. He believed they should appoint a publicity officer to deal with the whole of the dominion. The majority of the public knew practically nothing about the fund. Mr Smith paid a tribute to the effioient work of the office-bearers. Tho expenses of administration were very low. The motion was earned.

Miss Young, president of the Dunedin branch of the Trained Nurses’ Association, expressed gratitude to the fund and its workers for the efforts to assist the nurses. The association’s general secretary had been asked to approach solicitors to present tho claims of the fund for the attention of people making wills. Office-bearers were elected as follows;—Patroness, Her Excellency Lady Blcdisloc; president. Sir H. Lindo Ferguson, C.M.G. ; vice-presidents—Mr •James Begg (Dunedin) and Dr Win. Young (Wellington) ; committee—Miss J. Bicknell and the Hon. Mr Justice MacGregor (Wellington), Mrs Ethel A. Kidd and Mr Oliver Nicholson (Auckland), Miss J. L. Beck and Dr L. S. Manning (Canterbury). Dr Hogg (Invercargill), Miss Holford, Miss Lancaster, Miss Thcomin, Messrs C. W. Rattray and C. Russell Smith Otago) ; hon. secretary,' Mrs H. W. Bundle (Dunedin) ; hon. treasurer, Mr James A. M'Kinnon (Dunedin): hon. auditor, Air AY T. Moukman (Dunedin); hon. solicitor. Mr A. N. Haggit (Dunedin). Returning thanks for his re-election and the tributes extended to him. Sir Undo said that when ho was approached to assist in tho formation of the fund as a memorial to nurses who died during the war he had insisted that tho fund should be utilised to assist living nurses, and he was glad to see tho progress that the fund had made.