LADY PEARSON, D.B.E.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19486, 16 November 1926, Page 9

LADY PEARSON, D.B.E.

COMING VISJT" TO DOMINION. Lady (Arthur) Pearson, D.8.E., widow of Sir Arthur Pearson, the well-known newspaper proprietor and founder of St. Danstan's, will be in New Zealand early in the coming t'ear, bat her stay there will not be long, ssys our London correspondent. She has hooked her passage by the Cunard liner Franconia, which is announced to " cruise around the world through Southern Seas.'' The passengers from England for this luxury tour will leave Bristol on New Year's Day, and will join the Franconia at Kingston (Jamaica)- Auckland should be reached about February 13. Lady Pearson's great forte may, perhaps, be' said to be her natural gift for organising, and this was manifested dv.rin the war in several important directions. For instance, she organised the Queen's-Work-for-Women Fund, and she trained a number of blind people—soldiers and civilians—musically gifted, to give concerts all over the country. Tint financial results of these averaged £25,000 per year. In both these important wartime enterprises she, of course, had a large and efficient band of helpers. But it is perhaps as president of St. Dunstan's that her name is best known to the world at largo. This is now a vast oragnisation, and though there may not be a great many more fresh cases of blindness that can be directly attributed to the effects of the war, there will always be the aftercare interest and work on behalf of the St. Dunstaners who are earning their livelihood all over the world. Indeed, when the last of the warblinded men has been trained and settled, St. Dunsiau's is still pl-jdged t<- a life-long responsibility for them all. That is the maintenance of the widespread After-Care Organisation, the work of which commences with the completion of the training of the blinded man, and ends only with his death. This AfterCure Organisation, which is essentially a costly one to maintain, has but one aim and object in view—to smooth the way, as far as is humanly possible, for every war-blinded man from the moment he leaves St. Dunstan's. However fine the spirit ana however brave the outlook the war-blinded mai. learns in the environment of St. Dunstan's, it is 'inevitable that, left to fond for himself in the thousand and one difficulties and problems which must besot him, a great deal of tho splendid work accomplisned would be gravely prejudiced. A helping hand here, a little service there, and abvays the opportunity to submit to tho AfterCare Department any difficulties that crop up, meant the whole difference bo-ween continued success and contented citizenship, and tho growing despondency of failure. All of these men living in the Dominions, it will be Lady Pearson's endeavour to seo during the'eoming tour