4 LEPER COLONY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19844, 19 May 1927, Page 7

4 LEPER COLONY

LIFE ON MAKOGAI Five Hundred Patients Under Treatment GIFTS FROM NEW ZEALAND APPRECIATED. Far away on the Pacific Isle of Makogai a band of sLters is bringing happiness there, cut off from direct communication with the outside world, the whole community appreciates anything which is sent from New Zealand. (Special to ‘ ‘ Chronicle. ’’) AUCKLAND, May 18. “The leper settlement of Makogai is very well conducted by the Government, and everything possible is being done for tho happiness of the patients, of whom there are nearly 500,” said the Rev. F. B. Redgrave, General Secretary of the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions, who returned on the steamer Tofua from an extended trip of Anglican mission stations in the Diocese of Polynesia. “I cannot speak too highly of the wonderful work which is being done by the Boman Catholic order of sisters who attend to the nursing and dressing of the patients,” he continued. “A French priest and a native sister, while ministering to the lepers, have contracted the disease, and are now patients on the island. No less than 15 of the French sisterhood have had to retire owing to the strain of the work since the island settlement began in 1911, and only one of the original band of workers, Sister Suzanne, now remains. ”

Mr Redgrave said that among the patients there were 10 from New Zealand —three whites, four Maoris and three Chinese. They worn all very grateful for presents sent from the Dominion. “Up to the present 140 people have been discharged as cured,” he went on. “The latest was a Samoan chief who travelled with me to Apia on the Tofua. On his arrival he received a wonderful welcome. He is the first Samoan who has returned from Makogai. The cinema and films have been greatly appreciated,” said Mr Redgrave, “but the Mother Superior is very anxious to receive funds for the erection of a building in which to show pictures. At present they are shown in the open.”