LEPER PATIENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19947, 15 November 1926, Page 6

LEPER PATIENTS.

THE MAKOGAI STATION. APPEAL FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, November 14. Sir Maui Pomare, Minister of the Cook Islands, has received through the Government House official advice from the Governor of Fiji that the medical suporintende .t of the Makogai leper station is making his annual appeal for contributions for the leper patients’ Christmas fun Tne medical superintendent acknowledges with deep gratitude the response which was made by the people of the Dominion to his last year’s appeal, and in forwarding the balance sheet showing the way in which the money was spent, emphasises the joy which the gifts brought to the afflicted. As Sister Suzanne, one of tl devoted French nursing sisters who, with her colleague, recently visited Wellington, pointed out, the joy and pleasure which these acts of benevolence bring to the patients is a most important factor in their cure. It is hoped that the people of New Zealand will respond to the appeal of the medical superintendent of the leper station with the same generosity as in past years. It will be remembered that the leper settlement at Makogai now includes sufferers from Western Samoa and the Cook Islands, as well as from the Dominion itself, and it is pleasing to note that the advices already received indicate that a generous response is assured for the benefit of the native patients. The office of the Minister of the Cook Islands, Wellington, will be pleased to receive any contributions to this appeal and to sec that they are forwarded. -So far as gifts other than money are concerned, the last opportunity for despatch from New Zealand to reach the leper station before Christmas will be by the Tofua, which is due to leave Auckland on baturdav, December 4. These Christmas gilts will be carried free by the courtesy ot the Union Steam Ship Company.