A GENEROUS GIFT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 8

A GENEROUS GIFT

The spirit in which Mr S. Saltzman has been prompted to make a gift of approximately £IOOO for the equipment of an ophthalmic theatre in the new administi’ative block of the Dunedin Hospital will be highly appreciated by his fellow-citizens. There has not in the past been any such properly-equipped provision of this kind for the treatment of affections of the eye, ear, nose and throat in the Hospital, and consequently it has been at some disadvantage that the skill of its staff has been employed. This deficiency is now, however, to be repaired, and Mr Saltzman will have the satisfaction of knowing that his gift, in increasing the efficiency of the institution to which it is made, will serve a valuable humanitarian purpose. He has always been a liberal supporter of worthy objects, and the generosity which has moved him to offer a very substantial contribution to the process of the alleviation of physical disability and misfortune in the community has found a very appropriate outlet in his selection of the Public Hospital as the medium through which it shall be dispensed. Benefactions of the kind are less common than they might be in this country. But while there is an explanation of this, there are various ways m which those who are disposed to make gifts to hospitals might usefully do so with benefit to these institutions and to the public. An interesting comment upon the ex tent to which the hospitals in the Old Country benefit by donations from in dividual citizens was made last week by Sir Donald M'Gavin upon his return to this Dominion. As he truly said, the fact that the hospitals in Great Britain are maintained, not by rates, but by voluntary contributions, provides a stimulus such as does not exist in this country to private munificence in the endowment of these institutions, for it tends to inculcate a tradition which is not similarly encouraged under our Dominion system. Mr Salt/,man’s gift to the Dunedin Hospital furnishes, however, an illustration —and it is not an isolated one--that the fact that the construction and maintenance of hospitals in New Zea land are a charge upon the taxpayer and the ratepayer does not necessarily weaken the appeal to public-spirited and warm-hearted citizens which is presented in the need for the treatment of hospital patients under the best possible conditions and with the most approved appliances