OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 76

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS

(Conducted by Magisteb, to whom all communications must be addressed.) [Magister will bo glad to receive Nature Notes, marked papers containing educational articios, diagrams,- details of experiments, etc., of scholastic Interest to teachers and pupils. Correspon on - ciiust. use oxlv oxe side of the paper, anr whether using a pen name or cot, must- sen both NAHE and address ] CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTES. From Manapouri I received a stone specimen for identification. Dr Marshall, Professor of Geology, kindly* supplies me with the following note upon it: — “Dear ‘ Magister.’—The specimens from Manapouri arc greensands of old Tertiary age. They contain several marine shel.s. During the middle Tertiary the whole of New Zealand was at a much lower elevation. for these marine rocks occur in places at an elevation of 3000 ft to 4000ft.’ The following note will interest many m Otago and Southland:

“ Dunedin, May 26.

“ Dear ‘ Magister,’—Seeing that a fund has been opened here for the relief of th» Serbians, I wonder if it would interest your readers to know that a New Zealand lady has joined the Royal Free Hospital unit under Mr Berry (the senior surgeon), and is now in Serbia. The lady 1 refer to is Nurse Agnes Miller. She belongs to Southland, and was 15 months in the Dunedin Hospital ancl three years in the Oamaru Hospital; also a year’s training in the Melbourne Women’s Hospital. She was nursing in Durban (South Africa), when the war broke out, ’ and volunteered for service. But, as the authorities were not prepared at that time to send any nurses, *he finally paid her- own passage to London She sailed for Liverpool on April 1 for Serbia. They go at their own risk, ancl have everything to provide at their own expense, except uniform. The list is pretty formidable. 1 enclose it and a page from the Nursing Times which she sent. Make any use of them.” I have appealed to school children for help to make the schools’ queen the most popular; but we- must not forget others, so I am reproducing a part of an article, “Terrible Conditions in Serbia,” on the sheet my correspondent has enclosed: “A great deal of interesting information relating to hospital work in Serbia has lately appeared bi the press. “The Dailv Sketch publishes a letter written at Salonika by a member of Sir Thomas Linton’s party, ay ho describes vividly the terrible conditions in. Serbia, adding ; 'ln three months’ time not half the population of Serbia will be left. One has to buy water in sealed bottles, and food is very scarce and dear. ... I can hardly realise the horror of it all.’

“ Sir Thomas Linton, in a letter to Sir Robert Hudson, of the British Red Cross Society, describes his visit to the American Consul at G’cx’gyh He says: ‘The condition the patients were in was something terrible. I also saw some of the nurses. Out of 12 seven of them are lying sick with typhus, and throe of the doctor's—out of six--are down with the same trouble. Dr Donnelly came to the station to see me off—as fine a type of a healthy man as you bould see, and of a happy, cheerful disposition. His age would be about 40. Just before the, train started two young nurses cam a down to sec me. I sent back to the hospital some little comforts I had in the train. On my way back, when I g_ot to the station at Gievgyli, I looked for Dr Donnelly and those two nurses, but to mv regret I found Dr Donnelly had died the day before, and the two nurses were lying seriously unwell with typhus.’ ”