AID FOR LEPERS

Southland Times, Issue 25546, 14 December 1944, Page 10

AID FOR LEPERS

NEW ZEALAND FUNDS ALLOCATED Thanks to New Zealand’s generous response to their recent appeal, the Lepers’ Trust Board—itself a New Zealand Society—has been enabled to allocate no less than £15,000 for the welfare of lepers in the various South Pacific Islands, including. £2OOO to the Government-controlled station at Makogai for comforts and rehabilitation of discharged lepers, states a statement issued by the board. An endeavour is being made to hurry along the erection in the British South Solomons of a general hospital for all patients, and the beginning of a leper village scheme for less serious cases. At present most of this work is done by the various mission bodies and the trust has therefore made grants to these bodies for the building of small hospitals or dispensaries and the equipment. Similar allocations have been made also in the New Hebrides. Where the activities of a church body are limited to one area, the grant is £lOOO, but where it operates in two areas, the grant is £l5OO. The British Consul in New Caledonia has very kindly offered his services to the Trust Board and a small committee will be established there to arrange the provision of additional dispensaries and the distribution of comforts to a total value of £l5OO. That the work of the board has been useful and appreciated is shown by the commendations and thanks from the British Colonial Government of Fiji, the New Zealand Government, the Free French Government in New Caledonia and also from the New Zealand missions committees of the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist and Catholic mission bodies working in the South Pacific. The board, however, fully realizes that in reality these commendations apply primarily to those generous and charitable people who have responded to its appeals. GRANTS TO DENOMINATIONS Following are the allocations for 1944: British South Solomons: New hospital in Solomons, £5000; Melanesian Mission (Anglican), £1000; Methodist Mission, £1000; Seventh Day Adventist Mission, £1000; Marist Mission (Catholic), £1000; total, £9OOO. New Hebrides: Presbyterian Mission, £1000; Melanesian Mission, £500; Seventh Day Adventist Mission, £500; Marist Mission, £500; total, £2500. New Caledonia: Dispensaries and equipment, etc., £1000; Additional comforts, £500; total, £l5OO. Makogai Leper Station: For comforts and rehabilitation, £2OOO. The grand total of allocations was £15,000. This is the third successive year that the board has made substantial grants to the religious denominations doing leper work in the South Pacific area. There are, of course, unknown numbers of lepers in far-off countries— Japan, China, Africa and so on. As it would be expecting too much to ask our New Zealand friends to accept the burden of assisting the lepers of the whole world, we are concentrating our energies in the directions of alleviating the sorrows and sufferings of those ■ lepers nearest home—Makogai in Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, the British South Solomons, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and the South Pacific generally—leaving other, older and larger countries to do their part on behalf of those more distant leper colonies. Though very reluctant to make distinctions we do feel that the above explanation is desirable in order that our contributors may not be confused between our appeal and that of another organization (The Mission to Lepers), which appeals in New Zealand on behalf of the more distant leper colonies of India, China, Africa, Japan and so on. The Lepers’ Trust Board is the only organization in New Zealand which appeals for our lepers at Makogai and other islands in the South Pacific.