STRONG RESENTMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16947, 9 November 1926, Page 11

STRONG RESENTMENT.

NURSES UP IN ARMS. "UNWARRANTED ASPERSION." Remarks made by certain members of the Nelson Hospital Board at their last meeting during a discussion on' the purchase of a bottle of whisky for the Nurses' Homo are strongly resented by the nurses. A number of the sisters and nurses, including the acting-matron, accompanied by the chairman of the Hospital Board (Mr G. M. Rout), made representations to the Mail to the effect that they considered that an entirely unwarranted aspersion had been cast upon them by the remarks of board members. Some members had expressed surprise that a bottle of whisky should nave been, procured for the Nurses' Home. The nurses were even more surprised at the attitude of members and the suggestion that "young girls had been dealt out whisky at the Xurses' Home" was emphatically repudiated. That the whisky was used for other than the medicinal purposes for which it was obtained was unequivocally denied. In support' of the acting-matron's statement that the whisky was not abused or used other than sparingly, she produced the much-discussed bottle. The whisky had been released from lock and key for demonstration purposes, visual only. An inspection of the bottle showed that its contents had been depleted to the extent of between three or four small "nips," or about one a week since the purchase was effected. These "nips," or doses, had been used solely for medicinal purposes, the only purpose for which the stimulant had been obtained.

The nurses fully endorsed the statement made by the chairman at Wednesday's meeting, that whisky was not served out to young girls. The insinuation at the meeting that there was a possibility of a scandal developing at the Nurses' Home, based on the purchase of a bottle of whisky for medicinal purposes, was ..regarded as entirely unwarranted and calculated to injure the good name of the stafr. The nurses complained that certain members of the board had made a mountain out of a molehill. They had been most unjust in imputing wrong doing or prospective, wrongdoing on the flimsiest of reasons, and they strongly resented It. The chairman endorsed their protest. When the nurses left, the much-de-bated nearly full bottle of medicine went with them to be placed once more under lock and key until it is required for legitimate purposes.