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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6997, 21 April 1884, Page 4

The large assemblage in the ball-room of Government House on Saturday afternoon to witness the presentation of the decoration of the Royal Red Cross to Miss Crisp was at once a testimony to the popularity of the Governor and his family, and an emphatic compliment on the part of her fellow-citizens to the recipient of the decoration. To wear the Red Cross is the highest honour a< woman can hope for. Only a few as vet 'have received it. It is not a.i decoration given merely •to rani, j Nothing can gain it but the patient\ manifestation, through long years, of courage, of skill, of gentleness, of endurance. It means valour perhaps as much as the Victoria Gross j for the nurse who suffers the hardships of a campaign, who breathes in the unwholesome atmosphere which spreads around after a battle j who attends to the wants of patients stricken with fever, or- other infectious - diseases; who dresses the ghastly wounds received on battlefield j who attends men in their dying moments, must possess a courage equal to that which, bv- a sudden and daring exploit, wins the Victoria Cross. The decoration bears testimony, too, that she who wears it is inspired by the loftiest motives which can. actuate a human being. "When, during the Crimean War, the tale was told in England of how hundreds of men were dying of mere neglect and maltreatment in the hospitals, and when Miss Florence Nightingale came forward and carried out hernoble work, the wholeof England did credit to the grand enterprise. And happily, since that time many of Miss Nightingale's successors have been imbued with her spirit. The records of the career of Miss Crisp show that she devoted herself to her profession with entire self-devotion and self-sacrifice, which has in some degree now received their reward in the decoration sent from England and in the acclamations of a large gathering of the citizens of Auckland.

The institution of female nurses has now been admitted tc> be a success, although at . first, . there -was great opposition to it, especially on the part of certain of the military authorities. Amongst other things it was contended that the •work -which these ladies would have to do, the sights and sounds they would have to endure, would harden them, would deprive them of all delicate sensibility, would make them coarse viragoes. Merely psychological considerations might have repelled this argument. Metaphysicians, long ago declared that when disagreeable and repulsive impressions were repeated without any action on the part of the person affected, callous insensibility follows. When, however, effort is constantly made to succour and relieve, there is no such effect. The . mind becomes active in benevolence. Mere squeamish faintheartedness ' disappears, and the habit is acquired of striving to relieve suffering whenever it presents itself. But the facts have defeated all cavil. From the terrible sights which these ladies are compelled to witness on the battlefield and the hospital, from \the trials and dangers of campaigns in South Africa or Egypt, they emerge nobler and better —with greater fortitude,'with a keener sense of pity, with active -faculties ready always to do. when there is suffering to be relieved.

. Lastly, we will say that we hope the occasion may prove to be a benefit to our hospital. We would like to see it and the other hospitals in the colony supported to a greater degree than they are at present by local subscriptions, and made less merely Government institutions. In this way the drain on the colonial exchequer would be relieved, a spirit of kindliness and benevolence would be encouraged in the community, and the active interest excited locally.-would ensure the most 'efficient working of 'the' institutions i themselves. It was appropriate that a

large proportion of those present at thW~ ~ investiture were IswEes.' Their sex W been ,by the,heroism of vomen.sucH Orisp. iv, are not called on to do as she has dot? but they ought to feel stimulated V Saturday's proceedings to take an activ interest in all our institutions for the relief of suffering. 1