Presentation to Miss Brown

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume VI, Issue 4, 1 October 1913, Page 164

Presentation to Miss Brown

On August 18th a gathering of past and present nurses was held at St. Helen's Hospital, Wellington, to bid farewell to Miss Brown, the matron who was severing, her connection with the Hospital and with the Public Service.

A large number of the nurses were in fancy dress and made the scene gay and hilarious, a fact for which the matron, who keenly felt the parting, was duly thankful.

Dr. Agnes Bennett was asked to make the presentation on behalf of the nursing staff, Miss Maclean and herself, of a tea service, cake basket, and hot water jug of pewter inlaid with blue enamel ; and spoke in the following terms : —

" Matron and Nurses and Miss Maclean. — My feelings in participating in this ceremony to-night are very mixed. I am indeed pleased to show in some material way our appreciation of Matron, but I regret exceedingly that it should at the same time involve her departure from among us. In thinking over a speech like this, one goes first of all to one's personal feelings in the matter. I cannot tell you how during our six years' work together I have appreciated matron's thoroughness and considerateness. The position of M.O of St. Helen's is such that the matron can — consciously or unconsciously — make life a burden and the work a constant anxiety. I have much to thank Matron for in that my work has been far from a burden — nay, a pleasure. With Matron at the helm I have enjoyed a pleasant feeling of security that St. Helen's would not go far wrong, and that whether present or absent the work was carried on faithfully, so that there was no falling off in those little attentins to discipline and detail which make or mar the work of a maternity hospital. The testimony to this is in the results, for I believe it is a fact that the statistics of our New Zealand St. Helen's compare favourably — more than favourably — with the statistics of maternity hospitals all over the world. This indicates a constant watchfulness and care that few of us realise. I am convinced

that Matron's good training and discipline in asepsis alone has touched the lives, not only of the nurses themselves, but of the countless patients who by now have been attended by St. Helen's trained nurses. And teaching is not all joy to the teacher or to the taught — it is only in after years they realise the training. An excellent nurse once said to me : ' I thought Matron was stiff in those days, but now I realise what a task it was to lick us into shape in the course of one year ' — and so it is.

" But the nurses are not the only people who live to be grateful to Matron — this hospital exists primarily for the benefit of patients, secondly for the training of nurses. Thire is not one of you who will not agree that Matron keeps that primary object well in view. Many patients have expressed to me their personal regret of Matron's departuie, and I know theie are many others who are lamenting it in silence. It is sad, I think, too, that Matron has had her call to other spheres of work just at this juncture when the new hospital and its pleasant suiroundings have so lightened the tasks and relieved the anxiety of those in charge, but I am glad she has been at St. Helen's long enough to see the work so valued by the State that they have thought it worth while to build a State Maternity hospital that compares favourably with any maternity hospital in the world. The success of St. Helen's Hospitals as State institutions must in some measure be attributed to the good and earnest work of the early matrons — Matron Brown is now second in seniority, Matron Holford of Dunedin having been slightly longer in the service. And this success as a State scheme is by no means unimportant. It redounds much to the credit of our late Premier, Mr. Seddon, whose portrait as is fitting should adorn our walls, and also to the credit of his lieutenant, Mrs. Grace Neil], who worked out the scheme and put it into being and also formulated the rules and regulations by which we train under nurses of as good a type as can be obtained anywhere. The completeness and success

of the scheme is particularly evident now when every matron is recognising maternity as a valuable asset arid is formulating some scheme in lightening the burden of it to its citizens. All those schemes are by no means a success, as is evidenced by the Australian policy. We are then links in a great chain that connects the unborn child with the highest office of State, and let us congratulate and thank Matron that she has added much to the strength and dignity of this great chain herself and helped all of us who have worked with her to add to it too. Matron, I have the greatest pleasure in handing to you this testimony of the gratitude and appreciation of your fellow-workers during the last six yeais and in wishing you happiness and prosperity ir the work that lies before you."

Miss Brown responded in a few words of thanks for the appreciation expressed of her work and the gift, and expressed

her great regret at leaving the work in which she had been so happy.

Miss Maclean spoke on behalf of the Hospital Department which had accepted Miss Brown's resignation with the greatest regret. She endorsed Dr. Bennett's remarks that while Miss Brown was at the helm no anxiety was felt as to the conduct of the Hospital. She also spoke of the many nurses trained in St. Helen's, Wellington, and in the other centres who were doing splendid work in the country districts. She paid a tribute to the excellent system on which, the State Maternity Hospitals and the training of midwives had been established by Mrs. Grace Neill ,so that now, after eight years' working, beyond the provision of new hospitals necessitated by the growth of the demand for accommodation, little change of any importance had been called for.

After some music, the evening concluded with supper in the nurses' dining room.