FOR THE WOMEN OF OTAGO

Otago Witness, Issue 2983, 17 May 1911, Page 60

FOR THE WOMEN OF OTAGO

HOSPITAL EXTENSION. OVER £3OOO SUBSCRIBED. GENEROUS ASSISTANCE FROM PORT CHALMERS. Mr F. W. Platts, Major of Port Chalmers, convened a meeting in the Council Chambers on the 9th to consider what steps should be taken to assist the movement to raise £SOOO for a women's ward at the Dunedin Hospital. There were 21 ladies and gentlemen present, and as an expression, of substantial sympathy with the object in view a sum of over £3l was subscribed in the room before the proceedings had 'well commerced. The Mayor read apologies from several residents who were unable to be present, and explained that others (including some councillors) could not attend. He tsaid a splendid—a magnificent—effort was being made in Dunedin to raise a sum of £SOOO, which, with the Government subsidy would amount to £12,000, to build another ward at the Dunedin Hospital for the reception of suffering women. The necessity for such a ward was vouched for by the fact that both daily newspapers supported the movement, and also by the fact that the Hospital Board, medical staff, and honorary metdtical staff were in practical sympathy with it. The Hospital was an institution for the whole of Otago, and the sick and suffering of Port Chalmers, as elsewhere, had a right to be there when there was a necessity for it. It was therefore only right and proper that the people of tie borough and district should do all they could to assist the marvellously successful effort that was being made in Dunedin City. He suggested as a practical means of help that a subscription list shouLd 1 be prepared and that a committee be apnointed to canvass the town, and then on Saturday to ask the ladies to take up a special collection in the streets. He thought if what he had outlined were done it M'ould be found that the people of Port Chalmers, as they always had done, would make a liberal response. — (Applause.) Mr J. Mill endorsed what the Mayor had said, and expressed the opinion that if the ladies took the matter in hand the success of the street collection would be assured. Cr Woolsey also expressed his sympathy with the movement. . " The following sums were then subscribed:

The following ladies, with power to add, were appointed a committee to organise a house-to-house and street collections :—The Mayoress (Mrs F. W. Platts), Mrs Mitchell, Misses Bauchop, Morris, Sharpe, Sinclair, Bott, De Maus, and Moir.

J. Mill £10 10 0 F. W. Platfcs ... . 5 5 0 Dr Borrie 3 3 0 Cr R. Bauchop ... . 2 2 0 D. R. W. Ovenden ... . 2 2 0 Local Lodge Oddfellows (per Mr J. H. Crawford) ... . 2 2 0 N. Dodds ... . 1 1 0 A. M'Intyre . ,. 1.1 0 Mrs Mitchell 1 1 0 M. R. O 1 1 0 Cr D. Woolsey 1 1 0 Y. Donald Total ... . 1 1 0 £31 8 0