OUR HOSPITALS—A SUGGESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 37

OUR HOSPITALS—A SUGGESTION.

Mr William F. Slack writes as. follows ; —I beg of you space in the columns of your widely read paper, in which t.o make a suggestion to the people of Wellington, which will greatly assist our hospitals and at the same time serve as a fitting memorial to our late Queen —a woman of high ideals, good, true and noble in every sense of the word, and one who, during her life, specially identified herself with hospitals. What I would suggest and strongly urge upon, nay, appeal to the citizens of this city to do, is to make a special offering on a special Saturday—-be the offering large or small, so lohg ; as all contribute—and continue this offering year after year on one special day. This method of subscribing to hospitals has operated for some years in Australia with the greatest success, and the day on which the collection is made is now popularly termed “Hospital Saturday.” Take Sydney, for instance; the collection is made there on the first Saturday in April. Some hundreds of willing ladies commence their labour of love at eight- o’clock in the morning and collect till eleven o’clock at night. Everyone is levied upon. No one escapes. The poorest give their mite with pleasure. Thousands and thousands of coins, from a half-penny to a sovereign, notes, cheques, postage stamps, tickets-—all find their way to the boxes and stands. The details of organisation cannot of necessity be given in this- limited space—suffice it to say 7 that so enthusiastically do the public enter into the spirit of the movement that the collection in 1900 totalled some £6500, which, with the Government grant of “pound for pound,” gives a grant total of £13,000. Think what it means to suffering humanity, and then remember that this result was attained through the agency of small subscriptions—amounts perhaps insignificant in themselves, but united, the result above. Now, if such a movement can be made a success elsewhere, why not in Wellington? Our hospitals require more money, and here is just the opportunity for the citizens to help those institutions, and, at the same time, memorialise, in a worthy manner, the life of one of the highest-minded women of the age. Alay “The Victoria Memorial Llospital Collection” soon be an accomplished fact. If everyone works with earnest enthusiasm, there can be no failure.