"SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18549, 9 May 1922, Page 5

"SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND.”

We have received the following subscriptions to the “Save the Children Fund., which is being administered in Russia under British auspices:— , Previously acknowledged £393 10 11 “Sympathiser” 5 0 0 “R.P., 5.8.” ... ... 110 Miss White ... )... , ... 0 7 6 A SOUTH ISLAND SANATORIUM SITE. TO THE EDITOR. Sik,—Regarding the opinion passed by the Vincent,"Hospital Board (yesterdays Times) at its last meeting, in connection with the proposed purchase of the Waipiata site for a South Island sanatorium. I think the public is entitled_ to these facts. Only a small majority is aware that the only other possible sites under consideration by the health authorities were at Clyde—hence the dissatisfaction of the Vincent Hospital Board at Waipiata being finally selected. ' 1 Some months ago the department circularised all hospital boards concerned, instructing them to select two members and send them to investigate the site, prior ,to attending a conference of boards at Timaru this month to discuss the matter with the Chief Health Officer of New Zealand and the Minister of Health. The Vincent Board has nominated two of its members to intend this conference, and has emphatically' instructed them to oppose the purchase of the Waipiata* site, as stated in yesterday’s Diily Times. of these delegates has inspected the Waipiata property, as requested by the department, but instead, the representative' of the Vincent Board who did inspect* the property (and pronounced satisfaction with it) was the owner of the only other site under consideration at the time of the final selection by experts, such as Drs Valintine, Frengley, Wylie, M'Kibbin, and others, whose long experience has taught them the . essentials of a sanatorium site. Dr Valintine investigated the Waipiata site after he had 5/een all others—hence the final decision. In the interests of the public it would be wrong for any delegate to attend the conference unless he has personally investigated the prospective site. Is there any member of the Vincent Board whose knowledge and judgment can be compared with that of departmental experts? ’ Self-interest on the part of any board should sink into nothingness when so many lives are at stake. ■ Because of several boards’ non-co-operation with the department serious delay has been caused, whereby many sufferers in the early stages of tuberculosis have lost all chance of recovery, as there was no institution to receive them for treatment.—l am, etc., May 5. A Consumptive. Sir,— l notice that the Dunstan Hospital Board is gravely concerned] because the Health Department has chosen Waipiata as the, site of a new sanatorium in Central ,Otago. I > understand the other site under consideration, when the decieion was made, was one at Clyde, Quite evidently, therefore, this is a straight-out case in which teeth have been set on edge through partairing of sour grapes. I can testify from experience what the Waipiata climate can do for the unfortunate islufferers from consumption. I had tried several climates without avail, and was going to give up the struggle, when I heard of the Waipiata 'Sanatorium. Through the extraordinarily bracing and tonic qualities of the air on that wonderful hillside, and the treatment received, I waa licked into shape in a very short space of time, and have' ever since led a ueeful life, earning a full. wage without a day’s break and being dependent on none. When I was at the sanatorium all the other patients wore equally struck with the very fine site and oh mate there, and with the rapid improvement in their cases. It js also a very bright place to live in and commands a fine view of the surrounding country. No one outside of Clyde district who has seen the site could ever doubt for one moment the wisdom of the Health. De-. partment’s choice.—l am,- etc., Ex-Patient.x “CIVIS” AND HIS PUSSYFOOT STORIES. TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —“Civis” in Saturday’s Passing Notes, in dealing with the coming "Pussyfoot” Johnson campaign, give® what he terms “a stock joke with President Lincoln,” no doubt meant —whoever was /its author—to show up the insincerity of temperance lecturers. Dr Saleesby, chairman of the Birth-rate Commission of England, end inventor of the steel helmet so greatly in use in the late war, has stated that there is a big lie factory in twenty languages for the express purpose of , discrediting American prohibition in the eyes of the world. It is likely enough this slock joko of President Lincoln ie from this factory, ■ for "Civis” does not state whence he derived it. Here is another of the spurious Lincoln utterances from the Morning Advertiser (London), perhaps the extremest liquor trade, organ there is. It quotes President Lincoln from the record of the sixty-third Congress as having stated that "Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance.” Unlike "Civis” the Morning Advertiser was unwise enoiigh to give its authority. History informs us that Lincoln died many years before the sixty-third Congress had its birth. Verb sap! Here is a quotation from a speech by Mr Harding, the present President of the United States, and vouched for by Senator Willis: In even- community men and women have , had an opportunity now to know what Prohibition moans. They know that debts arc nioro promptly paid, that men take home the wages they once wasted in saloons, that families are better clothed and fed, and more money finds its way into savings hanks. Tho liquor truffle was destructive of much that was most precious in American life. In the face of so much evidence on that point, what conscientious man would want to Jet his own selfish desires influence him to vote to bring it back? In another generation I believe that liquor will have disappeared, not only from our politics, but from our memories. If "Civis” has a better and later authority of the failure of prohibition in the United States than . President Harding’s testimony to its success, then undoubtedly there are quite a number of your readers that would welcome it. —I am, etc., Prohibitionist.