YESTERDAY'S FUNCTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8939, 13 December 1907, Page 5

YESTERDAY'S FUNCTION.

LETTER FROM MR J. A. RENALL.

Mr Hogg has received from Auckland the following letter, which will be read with interest :—

The Chairman,

Masterton Hospital Trustees. Dear Sir,—l find that I will be unable to get away from my new home in Auckland to take part in the ceremony of opening the Mastertou Hospital. Will you kindly tell my co-trustees aud the people of your district how much I appreciate the work that has now been brought to a successful and satisfactory conclusion. Nobody knows better than yourself the difficulties that from first to last surronuded the task. When I accepted office as a trustee, we had a staff disorganised and an institution apparently beyond repair, tumbling to pieces. The measures taken with a view to improvement provoked a lot of disapproval. I believe that I can claim to have done my share in helping you aud the other members of the Trust in facing an amount of opposition and discouragement that at one time seemed overwhelming.

As the result of no little ardnous work, a new building, second, I think, as regards style and equipment, to no other institution of the kind in New Zealand, has been erected on a spacious and admirably situated site, and is opened under most favourable conditions both with respect to its internal aud external management.

Let me congratulate the people of Masterton aud the district, and especially the Trustees, on what they have accomplished. Lookiug back to the pleasant days I devoted to schemes of improvement while presiding as Mayor ol the Borough, nothing gives me more satisfaction than the reflection that I was able to take an active part in the establishment of the noble edifice that is reared above the Waipotia River.

(Signed) J. A. RBNALL.