RAILWAY SERVANTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 4

RAILWAY SERVANTS.

| PROPOSAL FOR CONVALESCENT HOME. Every year a considerable number of subscription lists are circulated throughout the ; railway service ip aid of railway employees who have been injured or laid aside on account of sickness. The recipients of relief in this form do not always get what they really require in the shape of medical attention and proper rest, and Mr M. J. I Mack, secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, has accordingly conceived the idea of a convalescent home on the lines of an English model. Such an institution he considers could be maintained by a monthly contribution of od per member. This would enable the homo to c.eal with considerably more than a hundred men each year. The home, it is suggested, should be built in a suitable locality, where proper medical treatment would be ov.il- : able. The scheme, which is given prominence in ' tliis month’s issue of the Railway Review, was outlined by Mr Mack at the last Wellington branch meeting of the A.S.R.S. He : dealt very comprehensively with the whole '• scheme from the necessary finances to the ; vast amount of good that could bo obtained j by such an institution. There would be no | difficulty, lie stated, in obtaining substantial | assistance from the Government towards i such an object. The building, in the fust 1 instance, would handle about 60 patients, and a large number of railwayman world benefit by the institution every vaar. Ihe matter of transport was fully discussed, and it was shown tiiat no serious obstacle could ■ i,-, a.. dcubt 1 patients going to or from the home would oe met by the department by the issue of ■ passes, etc., and the bogy of expense, i which faced every worker during illness, j would be removed should the home eventuI ate, as he would be nursed and cared for ' free of all expense, and thereby fitted to take up bis duties at even an earlier stage | than if his convalescence took place in his own home, where'perhaps of sheer nee.es-

sity h© was barred from obtaining those luxuries and attentions which- go so- far to win one back to renewed health and strength. If space permitted, raihvaymen’e wives and children could also make use of the home, at a reduced charge, if not free, and if surplus room still existed, outs-de members could avail themselves of the home, at a fixed payable tariff. The proposal is meeting with considerable support, and will be fully gone'into :f, the next general meeting of the •Ye'kiigton branch. Other branches are also interesting themselves in the movement.