AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20323, 3 February 1928, Page 12

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL DINNER IN LONDON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 24. Sir James Parr and the Australian High Commissioner (Sir Granville Ryriej both attended the annual dinner of the Australian and New Zealand Medical Association at the Trocadero Restaurant. Mr Joseph Cunning (president) was in the chair. New Zealand doctors present included Drs Eugene O’Neill, W. H. Bremner, 0. S. Hetherington, P. J. Jory, J. M. Twhigg, H. S. Billcliff, Jennings, and Marshall. It was a pleasant evening and little or no attempt was made by the speakers to discuss serious subjects. It was expected that some reference would be made to the subject of the Medical Council and the New Zealand Act, but as Dr Bernard Myers, who has this matter in hand, wag unable to be attend, only one brief reference was made to it by Dr O’Neill, who proposed the toast of the association. Dr O’Neill’s preamble was a string of amusing stories which concluded with some descriptive of the men of the two dominions. In these verses New Zealand figured as “ big, five-meal, meat-fed men.” Corning at last to his toast, he said that the association in London had done an incalculable amount of good work. Still better work remained for them to do in the future. “ I feel cer tain they will meet their obligations with the same vigour that exists in the association to-day. I hope that the good arrangements which exist between Great Britain and New Zealand and Australia will continue to exist both with regard to the British Medical Association and the Medical Council.”

The President made his reply the excuse for many amusing stories. It was very satisfactory to know, he added, that the association was becoming thoroughtly well_ known throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. At the initial meeting it was really surprising to find the large number of men belonging to the association who were on the staff of the teaching hospitals in London. One of the plasantest features of the association’s dinners was the fact that they were able to entertain their old teachers who visited this country. At different times they were able to entertain the High Sommissioners, and they were now pleased to have the opportunity of entertining their successors. Dr Algie Brown proposed the toast of the visitors. OVERSEAS MEN IN LONDON. Sir James Parr recalled the fact that the last time he was at an Australian and New Zealand medical dinner it was not half so pleasant. It wa s at the time of the Medical Conference in 1914, when he was Mayor of Auckland. The president, a New Zealand man, spoke for four and a-half hours, and 80 per cent, of his audience went to sleep. He (Sir James) had talked to some eminent medical men in London, and they volunteered the most sincere admiration of the good work done by Australians and New Zealanders who came here, and they were very eulogistic with regard to the training these men had got in the teaching institutions of our respective countries. It was a great tribute to those institutions that there were so many dominions’ men holding such splendid positions on the staff of important London hospitals, and all helping in this way to keep our commonwealth of nations united. From an Empire point of view it was fine to know that men from the dominions could come to London and get the training they wanted, that after looking round the whole world for what they required in post-graduate and research work it was to England they came as offering the most reliable and th* best training procurable. The High Commissioner, in concluding, paid a very high tribute to the general practitioners of Australia and New Zealand.