The Leper Station.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19621, 31 January 1936, Page 4

The Leper Station.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS. GENEROSITY APPRECIATED. Dr. T. Fletcher Telford and Mr. P. J. Twomey joint trustees for the Christmas leper fund have received the following letter from Dr. C. J. Austin, medical superintendent, Makogai Island. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your draft on the Auckland bank for £SOO. In addition we received the 80 cases of gifts in good time for the Christmas distribution. As suggested I am writing to Dr. Thomas Hughes and Mr. D. L. Thomas, of Auckland, asking them if they will assist us in the purchase of goods for our patients. The written word is totally inadequate to express our appreciation of your efforts on behalf of our patients and of tlie generosity of our New Zealand friends. Your appeal becomes more effective every year, and the increase this year is particularly welcome owing to the increase in our numbers. There has been a total of 184 admissions during the year, including natives from the Cook Islands and Samoa, the Gilbert and Ellice Group (which is now for the first time taking advantage of our centralisation scheme for the treatment of lepers) in addition to those from Rotuma and Fiji itself. In spite of 45 discharges, therefore, and 27 deaths, the number of inmates has risen from 466 to 580. You will understand then how grateful we are for your increased contributions, with over 100 extra patients to share your bounty! The ten days preceding Christmas were busier than ever for the Sisters. The sixmonthly visit of the H.M.C.S. Pioneer, the Governor's yacht, bringing the patients’ friends, occupied two separate days and formed a suitable introduction to the Christmas festivities. The Pioneer also brought the New Zealand gifts and so proved itself a veritable “Father Christmas. The task of unpacking and dividing up these gifts enabled us to realise the extent of your personal labours in packing them, and I am only sorry that we were so rushed at the time, the weather also being unfavourable, that we were unable to obtain a photo of the unloading and unpacking of these gifts.

On Christmas Eve the patients were assembled for the distribution of gifts and all agreed in their expressions ✓of gratitude to the generous donors. The new patients from the Gilbert Islands were particularly pleased to be here and were contrasting their present good fortune with their previous experiences of Christmas in their own leper station They were astounded to hear of the generosity of people in New Zealand and elsewhere whom they had never seen. With reiterated thanks for your personal efforts and to all donors of gifts and subscribers to the fund, and with every good wish for the New Year.