Wellington

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume IV, Issue 1, 1 January 1911, Page 3

Wellington

The annual meeting of the Association was held m St. John's class room, Willis Street, on 24th October, 1910. Mrs. Holgate occupied the chair, and on the platform were Mrs. Young (Vice-president), Dr. Agnes Bennett, Mrs. Thomson, and Miss Dunlop. Apologies were received from Mrs. Gibbs (President), and Dr. Kwart.

Mrs. Holgate opened with the following remarks : —

Fellow workers : The honour of presiding over this, the fifth annual meeting Gf the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Trained Nurses' Association has been thrust upon me by the unavoidable absence of our much esteemed President, Mrs. Gibbs, who is unable to be with us this evening, much to her regret and niore to ours, and I ask you to bear with me while I try m some measure to make up for our loss.

The working of this Association has always received my warm support and deep interest, and there are one or two matters I should like to glance at m reviewing the past year, and the first is that esptit de cotps which seems to have taken a larger hold of our nurses since the Association has (if I may use the term) " grown up." The dictionary meaning of " esprit de corps Jj is, il The animating spirit of a collective body," like the army, or the bar, and such an animating spirit we hope to find m our New Zealand Nurses' Association ; as we belong to one another, and owe loyalty and fealty to every trained nurse m the Dominion. It is this spirit of esprit de corps which keeps alive the family life m homes, and all united bedies are only larger families drawn together by the ties of a common calling, foi strenthening the hands of that calling.

There are many nurses who do not really understand their responsibilities to their Association. I heard a remark a few weeks ago : Such and such nurses do not join the Association " because they can do quite well without it."

We can do without museums, art clubs, libraries, if we wish only to exist, but if our work is to progress, and be the best part of us we must have everything that will bring us into intercourse with workers of all kinds and this is what the Association aims at. And when you have heard the report cf the last eighteen months read you will realise some of the advantages nurses have reaped from membership — not that that is the object of membership.

The sense of isolation is lost when a nurse belongs to an association ; her successes and failures belong to the whole. Her interests are guarded and watched by a council which she has helped to appoint, and to which she cay appeal m any difficulty.

The members of to-day are sowing the " to be " for the nursing profession m New Zealand : Is not that something ?

Miss Dunlop will touch on a further step which has been taken this year by the Council ; viz., the Sick Nurses' Fund. Our secretary started this with a small sum m hand : It is her little pet, to which she puts all the spare bawbees she can make out of ainything. She has asked me to say that we can do notning further m this matter unless some nurses invest an annual sum. We should like you to think this over, and if possible start with the New Year.

The next matter is, whether we should have a nurses' home of our own ? There are nearly three. years to think about it, by which time our lease m Willis Street will have run out. Wellington is the only place where the nurses' home is part of the Association, and we have a)n admirable Matron m Miss Stewart, who makes it as "homey" as she possibly can.

If you will bear with me five minutes longer, I do want to commend to the consideration of all nurses the admirable scheme of nursing for the back-blocks devised by out Patron (Dr. Yalintine), and to hope that you will every one of you try to attend the lecture Miss Bagley is giving later to thoroughly explain it to nurses. A nurse's life is looked upon as one of self-sacrifice, and until the eight hours system was adopted it doubtless was from the time a nurse first entered on her training. Legislation and considerate hospital boards have done much to make a nurse's life easier while she is m hospital, and it seems to me that almost the only branch of nursing that calls for the spirit of serving for love's sake is that of the back-block nurse. If you want to be really humbled, and find out how little you know, go and nurse m a poor district, where you are called m to worries and ailments that you have hardly heard of m hospital ; or where you are required to attend a case of typhoid ; or dress a wound, probably become chronic, without any of the appliances that have seemed an absolute necessity m hospital A year of New Zealand back-blocks nursing ought to be an invaluable experience to any nurse.

And lastly : The New Zealand Trained Nurses' Association and its history is written m Kai Ttaki, our Nurses' Journal. Kai Tiaki is the " open sesame " for your suggestions and impressions. We cannot all attend meetings, but we can all read the Journal, and nearly all can contribute ss. annually for its purchase. I wish more nurses would send m papers or write short articles on matters connected with nursing. Some nurses can write very pretty, shoil sketches, which add to the brightness of the paper. The last time Miss Maclean was speaking about the Journal she said she did not want to make our Journal a reproduction of other journals, as it is the work of the profession m this country we want to exchange. vSo far Miss Maclean has had plenty of copy ; but there are many who

have not yet contributed who are competent to co so.

As we hav< no Association motto yd, let me give you Digie vivamus — " Let us live worthily/ 1 until we meet for our next annual gathering.

This was followed by the reading of the secretary's report: — ■

Your Council has much pleasure m presenting the following re port on the past ye ar J s work for the consid< ration of nit tubers : —

As m former years p - ogr<ss has marked the workings of the Association on all sides. The membership roll shows a substantial increase, the total now standing at 178, as against 150 last year.

During the year the Council has settled some points of difference which had arisen between patients and nurses. In a few cases, through the kindness of Mr. Von Haast acting on behalf of the Council, nurses have been able to recover fees which patients seemed unwilling to pay.

At the beginning of our year the Council appointed a committee to communicate with the Medical Officer of Health with regard to having the quarantine period for maternity nurses reduced. The committee could not obtain any information from the Medical Officer, so this matter must stand over for future consiele ration.

On 9th August we heard with regret of the death of Mrs. Hislcp, who. had been a lay member of the Association from the beginning. A letter of sympathy was sent to Mr. Hislop, and a wreath on behalf of members of the Association.

On 25th August of last year we had a very successful sale of cakes and flowers. In November, advertisements drawing the attention of the public to the Bureau were put m the " Dominion," and " Evening Post " alternate Saturdays, and m the "Times" daily. The "Dominion" and ' Evening Post " advertisements have since been discontinued, but the advertisement m the " Times IJ is still running.

The most important feature of the year was the holding m Wellington of the first meetings of the Central Council. Full reports of the meetings were given m Kai Tiaki. Delegates from the other centres were entertained at social functions by Miss Maclean, Miss Payne, Mrs. Kendall, and Mrs. Young, and by the Wellington nurses at their annual dinner, which .took place on 18th November.

In December we proved the strength of union m our p-ot. st against the fifty-six hours clause for nurses m the Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill. A detailed account of Council's action m the matter is given m. the January number of Kai Tiaki. In the month of December also, the Council decided to start a sick fund for nurses, and the sum of £5 realised from the dinner was utilised for this purpose. This sum has since been augmented by £7 from the nurses' dance. Mrs. Porter has been appointed tr< asurer for sick fund. Thanks are due to members for their spontaneous response on behalf of one of our members who had a very serious illness.

In January the Council received with the greatest regret the resignation of our President (Mrs. Kendall), who had held office from the very beginning of the Association. The Council elected Mrs. Gibbs to fill Mrs. Kendall's place as President, and Mrs. Holgate was elected Vice-president.

A general meeting of nurses was held m, February, when the syllabus of lectures for the winter was arranged. With two exceptions the doctors have responded to the requests of the nurses, and lectures given have been much appreciated. A special lecture was given m October by Dr. Agnes Bennett.

In March the Council elected Nurse France to represent private nurses on the Council. In May Miss Kohn tendered her resignation as member of Council. This was accepted with much regret, and Mrs. Crawford elected to fill the vacancy.

In July the annual dance was held, and m August a sale of cakes and flowers. On Ist August we received with deepest regret the news of. Mrs. Valintine's death. On behalf of the Association of which he is Patron, a letter was sent to Dr. Valintine sympathising with him m his bereavement.

Miss Payne has been elected delegate to Central Council m place of Mrs. Kendall. Two months ago the Council received a communication from Mr. McLaren, M.P., asking if the Association would support the Bill f ©^legislation of Wellington milk supply. This is" another instance of the recognition of the Association's standing m the Dominion. The Council has informed Mr. McLaren that the Bill will have the support of the Association,.

The thanks of the Council are due to the honorary treasurer (Mrs. Thomson) for the

invaluable services rendered by her during the past year. On moving the adoption of the report, Dr. Agnes Bennett drew attention to the fact that this report was unique, m that it had no padding. It was a very plain statement m very few words of a great amount of work done m the past eighteen months ; that the secretary, with true Scotch method,

not only " raked m the bawbees, " but had carried us along month by month. Dr.

Bennett also emphasised the benefit the Association had been to nurses m recovering nurses' fees, and settling points of difference between them and patients. The adoption was seconded by Miss Payne and carried unanimously. The treasurer's report as follows was read by Dr. Young : — ■ I s. d. £ s. d. Home receipts . . 787 14 9 Expenses .. .. 703 19 0J Credit balance .. '£83 15 8J Visiting nurse receipts 205 10 I Expenses .... 184 8 8 Credit balance . . £1212 1 5 Association receipts 127 14 11 Expenditure . . 135 4 2 Debit balance . . /7 9 3 Cr. bal. home a/c . . 83. 15 8 j Debit balance Association 7 9 3 Total .. .. .. £76 6 5J Amount owing 18th October, 1910 — Bank .... .. 61 2 10 Dresden Piano Co. 13 2 8 ' Total .... £74 5 6 The adoption of treasurer's report was moved by Miss Bagley, who m a very neat

little speech expressed the indebtedness of the Association to the Council for its judicious handling of the funds ; and to Mrs. Thomson, the hon. treasurer, for the very valuable services rendered by her to the Association. The adoption of the treasurer's repoit was seconded by Miss Kohn and carried.

The secretary was then called upon to announce the result of the annual elections. The members of Council for the present year are as follows : —

President, Dr. Young ; Vice-presidents, Mrs. Gibbs, Miss Maclean ; Hon. Treasurer, Mrs. Thomson ; Hon. Secretary, Miss Dunlop ; Medical members, Dr. Ewart, Dr. Herbert, Mr. DcGavin, Dr. Hislop ; General Council, Miss Payne, Mi?s A. Mclean, Mrs. Porter, Mrs. McDonald, Mrs. Hdgate, Mies Kohn, Miss Brown, Mrs. Crawford ; I,ay members, Mrs. Young, Mrs. Newman.

This ended the business of the annual meeting, which was then thrown open for discussion. Miss Bagley took the opportunity to express the appreciation of the nurses at the Council's action m starting a sick fund for nurses, and moved that the Council take steps to put it on a proper business basis. This motion was seconded by Miss Dencker and carried.

The question of the annual dinner came up for discussion. The secretary explained that at the previous meeting of Council it had been decided that there should be no dinner this year. But as several nurses had expressed regret that the dinner should be let drop, it might be as well for the nurses to decide the matter. On a show of handj the majority decided m favour of the dinner being held. Nurse Masters said that she had been asked by some of the nurses to express the wish that instead of the dinner there should be some form of social evening. This was accepted by Council as a recommendation from the nurses.

Votes of thanks were accorded to Mrs. Holgate and the secretary. Supper was served and the meeting broke up informally.