HOSPITAL SATURDAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14382, 27 November 1908, Page 6

HOSPITAL SATURDAY.

As tile public is to be effectively lemindpcl when the appointed, hour arrives, to-morrow will be Hospital Saturday, the one day of the year which this community, following successful precedent, now makes a practice of i setting apart fpr the purposes ,pf a street collection in aid. of the funds of the local Hospital and of other philanthropic institutions.; It should be unnecessary to reiterate the many valid claims which the Hospital, the St. John Ambulance Association, the Patients and Prisoners' Aid Society, the Karitane Home, .the Benevolent Institution, and the Victoria, Convalescent Fund make upon the generosity of the public of Dunedin and of the surrounding -districts. which Y derive ,benefit from their existence,. .These claims will be thorougbly represented by the numerous collector who to-moiTow in the streets of the city and suburbs, and still further afield, will make a. general appeal to all they meet to spare a contribution, however small, on behalf of the deserving objects which the Dunedin Hospital Association has been formed to further. i''irst and foremost as a. reason for public generosity; on such an occasion come the needs of, the Hospital itself. In so far as its maintenance depends on the, lfttes jjlonfe; SO large an institution inevitably rails ghort of sufficient monetary resources to enable the primary hospital necessities to be enhanced by those adc|ition,il advantages 'and comforts which-mean a great deal to patients. Attention has, for instance, already been diuwn to i the depressing conditions which are at present a, reproach to the Hospital out-patient department. The other institutions named all carry out work closely akin to that' done by the Hospital, and wis can imagine no cause which should make a wider appeal for praotical sympathy and support than that which, they represent. The striking success yearly achieved through the Sydney; and Melbourne Hospital Saturday and Hospital Sunday collections may well serve as an inspiration to a' smaller community Deli as tliis and as an indication of the. growth of which such a movement is capable. • The Hospital collection taken up in Melbourne only a few weeks ago amounted to over £7000. Through the medium of three previou? Hospital Saturday collections Duhedin has already raised over £2200 for hospital and other kindred purposes, and w'e trust that this year's: collection will even surpass the record of oyer. £800 ■ raised in 1900. The comnnniity \Viiyhe divided into two sections to-morrow—the small army of collectors, on the" one hand and'-the lai'ge iU'lUy of prospective givers on the other,--and wo. feel assured that there is not a citizen of discrimination who will not realise that- the conveyance of a trifling coin or two to a- colleotioii box is 1 best a service of miserable insignificance in' comparison with the infinitely greater. practical philanthropy which moves a band of men and women to give tltpir time and labour to the by no means enviable task that is the main business of ; Hospital Saturday. We hope the, lady collectors will meet with such a; response to their appeal as will fully recompense them for their labours, and that they will find the public as generous as it is courteous. It may be confidently anticipated that all the 1 arrangements made for the day by the Hospital Association will be far-rertching and complete,, and it remain? for those who approach a collection - box to reflect that it offers them a. golden, opportunity of discharging to some extent that neglected duty which every man owes to his fellows and promptly to'respond to so meritorioais an impulse.