NURSE KING'S KINGDOM.

NZ Truth, Issue 91, 16 March 1907, Page 6

NURSE KING'S KINGDOM.

Another Maternity Misfit m

Maachester-street.

The terrible exposures .made by "•Truth" recently, anent the murderous manosuvrings at several so-called maternity homes m Christchurch-and elsewhere, naturally leads to the inquiry whether there .are really any inspectors of these places, or if the belauded by-laws are nothing but a snare and a delusion. A few weeks back this paper made some particularly disparaging aspersions aaent one l_"Nurse" Jones— who runs a muchly mismanaged maternity home at Orangmorc, 151 Salisbury-street, Christohurch. "Nurse" Jones was then invited, if she considered the caustic strictures made at the time upon herself and her lovely 'Ome, as being libellous, to take action against this paper and vindicate herself. Up to the present time the Tidy,' like Brer Rabbit, has laid low and said nuffin'. and probably will ■ continue so to do. One might be pardoned for supposing that en innocer.i* woman, who was carrying on a proper nursing home would hardly submit to he branded m the columns en any newspaper as ♦'THE PAINTED PROPRIETRESS OP THE DEATH TRAP," Which was .the particular appellation applied by "Truth" to "Nurse" Jones and her precious nursing establishment m Salisbury-street. Itmight have been taken for granted that she, if she were a much maligned woman, would have immediately taken the matter into the law court and there vindicated herself. But the painted Jezebel Jones knew that "Truth" knew too much about her and her sweet sanctum to dare to sedt relief af law." . Having pulverised this hornolo wotiian Jones, it came to the knowledge of this paper that there was yet another Augean stable m Salis-bury-street which needed attention. This delectable domicile is No. 149 Salisbury-street, and is situated ne>it j door t» the horns of Mother Jones, It is another maternity home, kept by a woman named King, who may, or may not, be the qualified nurse she claims to be. Judging by outward anpearances of the two, the house of Jones is preferable to that of tfing, for, when a "Truth" reporter stocd upon the pavement and gazed m silent rapture at No. 149, presided over by Nurse King, a vision of dirty curtains wi.th several holes, larger than the original design intended, m them, and a dirty verandah littered up with a stretcher or two i produced a feeling that -tne place wasn't cleaner inside than it should have been. It appears, rrom inquiries made, that the woman King has, or had on a very recent date, SIX MATERNITY CASES at her place! To attend to these patients and the infants, to do the housework and to perform the hundred and one 6i her details m such an establishment Mrs King employed a staff of— exactly one girl, aged 22 years. This girl is a probationer ,whb, it is explained, is almost worn but With work, but hangs o n to her biJlet un£iLAprik.m...Qrd6r, that. ,sfoe , may then procure the 12 months certificate necessary to qualify her as- a nurse. It can be. better imagined than described what kind of care and solicitous attention the poorpatients m King's kingdom receive m a home, staffed by one overworked, , * HARRIED, HOUNDED GIRL. Of course the woman King assists. That is to say, she gives instructions as to what is to be done, and sees that the staff of one carries out those instructions. But her assistance, materially, isn't worth a

great deal and she knows it. It further transpires that Madame King used fe be extravagant enough to employ a cook-general for housework, but that frail feminine bavins been fired 'for partaking too frequently of "firewater," the household drudgery has iallen to the p.ooi", pushed probationer to be executed between the times of waiting on six about-to-be or just-become-mothcrs and their frail infants. Just what sort of a kind_ mistress this King woman is can be" imagined when it is said that, before leaving home to gallivant to the Exhibition or the theatre (which -is her custom several times weekly),, this gentle disciple of Florence Nightingale benignly commands •: "Nurse, 1 want you to start cooking my oysters at 9i30 ! " So nurse, amid the muddle of mothers arid wailing of infants, has to hustle with oysters for the missus,: whilst that important personage whiles away the time plea-sure-seeking. It is alleged that some weeks ago ■■'■'>'.■ >?' ".;;" AN INSPECTOR HAPPENED .;■' ALONG andlansiiidly iliformed Mrs King that she 'had too many cases for a home of the . dimensions of 140 Salisburystreet. : Their the inspector person, having" done: its "duty," stepped off the mat -again, leaving King to go on just as before. It seems inconceivable, after the exposures made by "Truth" that these misnamed maternity "homes," carried on m such a disgraceful fashion at 151 and i4 l J Salisbury-street respeetiveiv can be allowed to continue* without official interference. Surely it is the business of someone m authority to take steps to stop this wholesale torturing of women during child-birth and the inevitable wastage of child-life (to say nothing of the mothers who are done to death by it) by the shamefully neglectful methods adopted by such women as the two so caustically castigated m these columns.