H.—3l.

Another step forward of which Wellington may well be proud is that in this same year, 1886, Dr Grabham reports: " The nursing staff struck me as being particularly satisfactory. I hey are well trained, intelligent, and lady-like, being evidently drawn from a class very much superior to the old-fashioned hospital nurse of former times. The head nurses are on duty from 6.30 a.m. to 6.,30 p.m. They get leave from 2.30 p.m. till 10 p.m. once a week, as well as Sunday afternoon. Ihe assistants come on duty, one from 4 a.m. till noon, the other from noon till 8 p.m., while the night nurse is on duty from 8 p.m. till 4 a.m." So was introduced the eight-hour day and three-shift system to New Zealand for probationer nurses, a condition still unheard of in the majority of hospitals m the Old World. It is interesting to note in 1890 Dr. MacGregor, who had succeeded Dr. Grabham, reporting on Auckland Hospital makes the following comment: " I think there will be a danger to the efficiency of the nursing staff if the proportion of experienced nurses to probationers is allowed to fall by pressing economy too far." As time goes by the innovations at Auckland and Wellington extend to other hospitals, and we find in January, 1894, following a visit to Waikato Hospital, the comments are : " The nurses are most carefully trained by means of lectures and demonstrations. The number of nurses appears to be excessive, but it is explained by the fact that they work only eight hours a day It looks as it the example of this hospital will soon be followed elsewhere, with, of course, a considerable increase of rates. And so it was found that a training-school for nurses with good living-conditions, suitable facilities for teaching, and reasonable hours immediately improved the nursing service given to the patient, and, in turn, benefited the whole community. In 1895 Dr MacGregor, who was a man with an intense interest in social legislation and who was working closely with the Liberal Government of Mr. R. J. Seddon, states that << owing to recent political and social development it was felt that the time had come when the numerous and delicate questions affecting women which have to be dealt with in connection with our system of charitable aid and our hospitals and asylums ought to be handled in the first instance by a woman. Mrs. Neill, who has been appointed Assistant Inspector, combines in a very high degree the ability, knowledge, and sympathy required for this position." Thus at a time when the University was opening its doors to women and women's franchise was established came this important step m the nursing woi Ic. Mrs. Neill, a Scotch woman trained at Charing Cross Hospital, London, had lived m Australia, where she had been left a widow with a son to support. This had brought about her finding employment as a factory inspector, and it was no doubt due to her own hardships that she developed the far-sighted vision which afterwards had such a marked effect on New Zealand nursing. The first three or four years of her service were spent in visiting the various hospitals throughout the country. Transport was very poor and the people lived in isolated communities which tended to provincialism in outlook and separate development. Mrs. Neill was alive to the dangersofsucha condition and saw the necessity for bringing the training-schools into conformity and establishing some means of protecting the public from charlatans and unskilled women. This aspect was brought home to her because of her close association with the charitable-aid system of her time, which showed her the dreadful plight of people who were ill and left to the care of the handy-woman. She therefore represented to the Government the necessity for a State examination for nurses and the creation of a register. At the time there was, of course, considerable opposition, the various matrons and training-schools feeling they would lose their identity and be moulded into a common pattern to the detriment of individual development. However, the Government, with its progressive legislation, realized the forcefulness of her representations, and in 1901 the first Registration Act for Nurses in the world was passed, which inaugurated a course of three years training with the State examination and the register. It is interesting to note the care that was taken in regard to the examination system—that of the New Zealand University being copied. At the same time as Mrs. Neill's appointment was made another pioneer the need for establishing a service for the care of the sick poor in their own homes. Miss Sybil Maude, who was at that time Matron of the Christchurch Hospital, resigned her position to devetop sudi a service in conjunction with the Deaconesses of the Church of England m Christchurch. From beginning Miss Maude laid down certain principles in regard to her service-first that the patient and his family must be taught the care not only of the patient, but also of the home so as to try and avoid further sickness ; secondly, that relief, even if only m the form of second-hand clothing was only appreciated if the recipient felt it was hers by right of purchase, even if only an infinitesimal charge was made, as indiscriminate relief-giving harmed both the giver and the recipient, third y, that nurses so employed must be well trained and of the right personality and vision. From these small beginnings has grown the public health nursing service of the Dominion. During the last years of the century the Boer War was fought under the trying conditions of the South African veldt ' Little New Zealand contributed her quota of troops to those sent from the various to assLt the Mother-country, and among them a very small band of nurses who served with their English sisters. Their service was favourably commented upon, and was the first occasion upo which a "body of nurses from this country served in any capacity overseas. 1900 to 1919 —The principle of proper training and registration having been established, t le new centurpbrought plans to improve tic U.re of the mother a»d child „ • « citizens were New Zealand's greatest asset.

B—H. 31.

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