MAORIS AND THE EPIDEMIC

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3467, 20 October 1913, Page 3

MAORIS AND THE EPIDEMIC

GRATITUDE TO NURSES. i) V ! EUEGHa - PahJ.IAM. I 'MI! it KS I'OX DENT ! WELLINGTON, Oct. 10. The chief health officer has received a letter from the natives at Waima (Hoklangn) thanking him Jor liis kind offices in connection with the recent epidemic and rejoicing in the success *c.f stamping out the chickenpox from that settlement. The letter adds: “We have succeeded in providing our nurses with their necessary requirements. We have thought it right to forward to you some little money by way of a present to the nurses who have been attending to us Maoris hereabouts. Although our monetary gift be a small one we ask you to be assured that our love and gratitude towards them is boundless, and we trust that this will specially bo remembered in the days to come. We have clearly seen that the only remedy in such times of danger lies in the work of nurses under your effective supervision.” Dr Valentine, in acknowledging the receipt of the letter and sum of money (£6), expresses his appreciation, hut points out that the low of> the Department docs not permit nurses to take any reward for performing a public duty, but that with the permission of the donors the money will bo handed over to the district nurse for natives to buy anything that she may require to further her work in the district, or to use it as the beginning of a fund for the puropse of providing any luxuries that may be required for sick natives.