OFFICIAL OPENING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 6

OFFICIAL OPENING

Violet Roberts Dormitory BEDS FOR DUNEDIN CHILDREN A new wing at the King George V Memorial Health Camp at Roxburgh was officially opened by fhe Mayor of Dunedin/Sir Donald Cameron, on Saturday. The wing, which has been named the Violet Roberts Dormitory, was a gift, together with its equipment, to the King George Memorial Fund Board by the Waikouaiti Camp Association. The cost of the building and equipment exceeded £4500, which represents the realisation on the Waikouaiti camp and its equipment, as well as a number of grants and donations. The Mayor of Roxburgh, Mr Waigth, presided at the ceremony on Saturday. Among those present were members of the committee of the Waikouaiti Association, of which Lady Hutchison is chairman, and Mrs Marshall Macdonald, now of Wellington, honorary organiser; representatives of the Dunedin Savings Bank; representatives of the Otago and Southland Council of the Federation of Health Camps; the secretary of the Advisory Board, Mr G. P. Comeskey, of Wellington; and Mr J. W. Dove, of the Otago Hospital Board, who is also president of the Hospital Boards Association of New Zealand.

The Waikouaiti Health Camp Association conducted its own health camp at Waikouaiti until recently, and when it was decided to close down the committee promised the new dormitory at Roxburgh. The new wing will accommodate 14 children, and as. a result, 84 children above the present quota will be able to go to Roxburgh each year. The wing has been provided especially for the children of Dunedin. It is similar to the other dormitory wings now in use and is connected with the main buildings by a covered walk. It is called the Violet Roberts Dormitory and the name is commemorated because the hall and dormitory of the Waikouaiti camp were given by Mrs Douglas White, of Wellington, in memory of her mother, Mrs George Roberts. The new wing is centrally heated and completely furnished.

There are 15 beds in the new wing to which individual names have been given in appreciation of assistance received by the association. The names are;—W. F. Edmond, Edmund Anscombe, Charles Todd, Sir Lindo and Lady Ferguson, W. J. Crawford, Barbara Gordon Brown, the Post Office, the Junior Red Cross, J. J. Marlow. Dunedin Savings Bank, Dr Grace Stevenson, Henry Hart, Dr W. Marshall Macdonald, Sir Donald Cameron and Sir Percy Sargood. Lady Ferguson was the first president of the Waikouaiti Children’s Health Camp. The Sir Donald Cameron bed was so named in appreciation of the help of the people of Dunedin. During the ceremony on Saturday, tributes were paid to .all who had helped, including the past and present secretaries of the Otago Hospital Board, Messrs John Jacobs and W. A. Williamson. Contributions towards the cost of the wing received by the committee included a grant of £SOO from the Advisory Board of the Federation of Health Camps, a grant of £250 from the Sargood Trust, and donations of £IOO each from seven benefactors—the family of the late Mrs W. F. Edmond, the daughters of the late Edmund Anscombe, <the family of the late Charles Todd, Mr Gerald Ferguson, the Dunedin Savings Bank, Mrs W. J. Crawford, and Mrs James Brown.