REHABILITATING MINERS

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22153, 27 September 1943, Page 7

REHABILITATING MINERS

FITNESS CENTRE” ESTABLISHED “A great experiment which is sure to be duplicated in other parts of the world,” was the description given by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Mr Thomas Johnston, M.P., to the Gleneagles Miners’ Fitness Centre, recently launched for the purpose of rehabilitating Scottish miners injured or in ill-health as a result of their occupational work. For this centre the famous Gleneagles Hotel, probably the most modern and most palatial tourist hotel in Great Britain, has been taken over, and recently w r as formally opened by the Secretary of State for Scotland in the presence of a large company, including representatives of various State ministries, coal owners and miners. Formerly operated by the London Scottish and Midland Railway Company, the Gleneagles Hotel is situated on the borders of the Highlands in a beautiful setting hard by one of the most famous golf courses in the world. Very little change has been made in the handsome building and grounds in the adaptation of the hotel to its new functions, but its equipment has been enlarged by the installation of the latest devices and expedients for bringing limbs and bodies back to full use. The fitness centre will give accommodation for about 200 miners, and when it w r as opened there were about 30 in residence under treatment.