WOMAN'S SACRIFICE

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13937, 24 June 1909, Page 3

WOMAN'S SACRIFICE

A TEACHER'S DEVOTION. In the absence of, medical aid in the isolated' districts in which many of the native schools are situated, it frequently falls to the lot of the native school teachers to minister to the needs of the Maori people nmoi'igst whom they are placed, and there are known to the Department many instances of selfshcrifice and devotion on the part of these teachers, reports of which rarely reach the public ear. A striking example of this lias recently been reported to the. Department. When the inspector. a rived at the school he founc! that all the children were assembled save one, a little girl of about nine years. She was in the teacher's house, apparently very ill. The teacher stated that the child, who was practically an orphan, had been ill for some time, r.nd as she had not been receiving proper attention and food in the pa, the teacher had some days before removed her to her'own. house, and there hac been nursing her since. In view of the serious nature of the child's illness th< teacher gave up the term holidays which were then due, and which would have afforded her a welcome change She journeyed to the nenrest town an' consulted a doctor, who pronounced the child to be suffering from rheumatic fever and pneumonia, requiring careful nursing night and day. Since then tlv doctor has visited the child, and is o' opinion that with careful attention slu will recover,; thonsrh it. wil probablv b three months before she is out of bed. The teacher, who has pi ready had thconstant care of the child for some si>" weeks, is now taking unon herself th' duty of nursing the child right throng]' her illness. She however, apparentl; faces the prospect with equanimity "If . then," she says, "Rcna regain health and strength we shall be thank fill, and some of these people will pei haps have learned how we value life."