COMPLIMENTARY SOCIAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14900, 2 May 1919, Page 3

COMPLIMENTARY SOCIAL.

WELCOME AT TE KARAKA.

_ A complimentary social was tendered m Hundlehy's Hall, Te Karaka, last evening, to Sister Jean Cormack and the Te Karaka boys who have returned from the wai*. Some of the. boys have beon Ijome many months andi are again in mufti, but a number have only recently arrived. There was an excellent attendance, about 200 residents of Te Karaka and the surrounding district being present. The Rev. G. D. Wilson, vicar of the parish, presided, arid in, a brief, appropriate speech, welcomed Sister Cormafck and the returned soldiers on behalf of the community. Mr. W. J. Brown also spoke. Mr. J. B. Poynter replied on behalf of Miss Cormack and the returned men. Some of the nsutives^present rendered poi and other dances. Dance music was/provided by Mr. F. S. Morgan, Mr. W/ J. Brown officiating as .M.C., extras being -played by some of the guests. Sister Cormack, who has recently returned to Te Karaka to resume her former position, as naitive district nurse, has^ had a wide and varied experience durinfr her four years' service with the Expeditionary Force/Leaving New Zeal land with the, first draft of 50 nurses in the t.s.s. Rotorua. Sister Cormack travelled via Monte Video, Rio Janeiro, and Teneriffe to Southampton, whence the draft was despatched to London, where ; a fortnight was spent in preparing for service. Sister Cormack was detailed for duty on a troopship, and proceeded to Egypt, calling at Malta, on the wav. Her services were then lent to the Imperial Government, and she was stationed at Alexandria for about 12 months. Her next transfer was to the hospital ship Oxfordshire, on which three trips were made to Salonika and Malta, thence to England with patients. Three trips were made between Southampton and Havre. At this period. Sister Cormack was granted the first leave, she had received — a period of ten days, which was spent in a trip to Scotland, where the hospitality of the people was much appreciated. Then followed a further strenuous period of service in the hottest part of the globe. Leaving England, Sister Cormack went to India, via the Suez Canal, and made seven trips with patients between Bombay and the Persian Gulf ; proceeding thence to German East Africa. Seven trips were made between Dar es Balaam and Capetown and Durban. Then followed a period of shore service at Dales Salaam, followed by a year at Lindi. On being recalled to Egypt, the journey was made via Zanzibar, Mombasa and Karachi to Bombay, .and 1 thence by way of Suez to Cairo, where the sister was attached to the 27th r general hospital until her return to the Dominion on the s.s. Malta, again joining the New Zealand Forces. The return journey was made Via Colombo and Fremaintle, with the JRarotongans, and on her arrival at W&llington she volunteered for quarantine dirty at Somes Island. Miss Corjhack was acting matron of the hospital at Lindi until her Tecall to Bsypi-. The principal cases dealt with .there were dysentery and malarial fever, They also had snakes, jackals, hyenas and lions amongst -fheir neighbors. •Sister Cormack states that in all her travels she has not seen any country which she prefers to New Zealand, and it ■ was with the deepest pleasure that she sighted once more the shores of her native land.