FIGHTING DISEASE PLAN FOR RESEARCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22469, 13 July 1936, Page 11

FIGHTING DISEASE

PLAN FOR RESEARCH

CANCER AND TUBERCULOSIS USE OF CANTERBURY BEQUEST [by TELEGHAI'H —OWN' CORnEBrONDKNT] CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday Wider powers in the use of the Travis bequest are being sought by the trustees, who have evolved a scheme providing for scholarships and the equipment of clinics and laboratories for research into the causes anil cure of cancer and tuberculosis. The proposals will be submitted to the Supreme Court for approval. Mr. William Henrv Travis, who died at Christchurch on June 21, 1927, directed in his will that the income from the residue of his estate, after the . payment of personal bequests, should be devoted to combating those two diseases. The value of the estate on June 30, 1935, was £57,625 18s lOd and the accumulated income at that date was £12,01G 4s Gd. The will directed that the income was not to be confined to scholarships, but niiiiht be used also for subsidising medical practitioners in private practice. Mr. Travis suggested that the Mayor of the city, the chief magistrate and a member of the honorary medical staff of the hospital should bo an administrative body, and the trustees of the estate, Messrs. 0. V. Bergh and H. l'earce, now desire to appoint as trustees of the income Sir Hugh Aclaud, chairman of the Canterburv-Marlborough-Nelson Wcstlnnd Division of the New Zealand branch of the British Ktnpire Cancer Campaign Society, Mr. John Mac Gibbon and Dr. C. T. Hand Newton. These proposed trustees, however, feel that they cannot accept the trust until the intention of the testator is more clearly defined.

The proposed scheme allows for tho appointment of two medical practitioners and one business man as tho W. H. Travis Income Trust Board. It includes tho provision of buildings, laboratories, apparatus and the adequate maintenance of them, together with the employment of the necessary statf; the giving of assistance to those actually suffering from either of the diseases; and the establishment of scholarships for New .Zealand students going out of the Dominion to continue their studies. It is suggested in the scheme that the board would subscribe to laboratories conducted bv metropolitan hospitals, to the Otago Medical School and i to the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society. It is also desired to provide text books and journals for the Otago Medical School or hospitals. A student who gains a scholarship and studies in England or Europe will be bound to return to New Zealand when the term of the scholarship expires and continue his work for a period in a laboratorv in this country.