Year Of Outstanding Progress And Service To Community Is Reviewed In St John Reports

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 87, 27 August 1948, Page 5

Year Of Outstanding Progress And Service To Community Is Reviewed In St John Reports

The chairman, Mr A. J. Cann- - ing, after expressing sincere thanks for the great effort of members, for free labour and for financial assistance that had been so readily made available, commented: “This building dedicated to the service of humanity is something which is going to serve the town and district for a very long time to come, and is an assurance to the public that our association has taken root and become part of the community.” “I wish to express my great pleasure with the excellent work car- : ried out by all members of Brigad'es, which must surely constitute a record of service rendered to the public in any one year,” he said. “We. now have Brigade members at Taneatua who are keen and efficient and these have proved a great help to our organisation. The Paper Mills Devision has now grown to a strong and efficient Brigade and this is a power of strength to our Association. I regret very much that the Edgecumbe Ambulance Brigade ceased to function during the year owing to the resignation of its Superintendent and to. shortage of members and this has thrown extra work on our local Brigade. However, I hope it will not be long before the Edgecumbe “Brigade can be resuscitated and then take up the valuable and efficient work that was a feature of this Brigade in the past. “I would especially like to take this opportunity of thanking Mr A. r Carling and Mr E. A. Ramson for r taking classes in First Aid and also those who assisted. In these times when Doctors are not available to lecture owing to pressure of work 'this service is One that we could not do without. Doctors have been very good in making time available to • conduct examinations and in giving advice when-required. I would es--pecially like to thank Matron Miller for the very able lectures she has given during the year. Also our thanks goes out to Robert Rae who put the Cadets through a course of hygiene. The result of passes was 100 per cent. “It may be of interest to note the great advance that has been made 'by this Association over a comparably few years,” Mr Canning added. “For instance, at the clqse of the financial year 1938 the Association owed the Auckland Centre £4 9s 6d against which it had 7s in hand. A year later the position had improved to the ■ extent "that no account was 4n arrears, there was 2s sd. in hand, ;i£2 in the Post. Office Savings Bank \-Snd books in hand to the value of !£l., , ■

“Compare tliis with our year just ended in which our income for. the year was £491 9s \iOdf .and our expenditure £466 13s sd. We closed the year with assets £1951 14s 4d plus value of free labour (a very considerable sum) and liabilities £35 7s 6d (since paid). “After all this good work has been 'Completed and our financial position is good, as you will notice by the balance sheet, our worthy secretary, Mr E. R. Dillicar, after five years of rfaithful service, handed in his resignation as he found it impossible fo do justice to the work on account of shortage of staff and pressure of work in his business. Now it is impossible for my Association to give too much praise to Mr Dillicar for the great service he has done in aid of the St John Ambulance . Association and to this town.” Senior Nursing Division Mrs S. G. Y. Hannah, Superinten--cent, Senior Nursing Division, reported that membership figures had not changed. Regular practices had been attended and during the year the, Division had assisted with ambulance trips, covering a total of ■ 1779|- miles in 1022 hours. In thirty public duties, St John nurses had treated 42 cases. In addition they had treated 10 private cases. Cadet * Officers Mrs C. Stewart and Miss F. .'Fife were congratulated on their efforts with the Cadet Nurses. Ambulance Brigade’s Work “This has been an epic year for -the Brigade, especially for work,” reported Superintendent E. A. Ram- •. son. “The membership has increas•ed mostly by the formation of a "branch at Taneatua. Our total for the Senior Brigade is now 29. This - with the addition of six senior, bo^s

•f V A year of outstanding progress and service to the community was reviewed in the annual reports presented to the annual meeting of the Whakatane Branch of the St John Ambulance Association on Wednesday night. Outstanding mark of progress was the successful culmination of the Association’s efforts in connection with the hall, 'which building cost £1731 12s Id, and is now entirely debt free.

from the Cadet Division makes a .total of 35 members for duty with the Ambulance and public duties. “Our activities this year have been considerably increased owing mainly to the Edgecumbe Brigade ceasing to function. We have done public duty at all Gymkhanas, Race Meetings, Boxing and Wrestling Tournaments, Shows, Football, Hockey, Motor-Cycle Sports etc. We have had to take over the Rangitaiki area besides the Whakatane area and this has been no mean undertaking, for one Brigade. “We had to undertake duty , at Waimana, Taneatua, Ruatoki, Whakatane, Poroporo, Paioa, Awakeri, Te Teko, Edgecumbe, Otakiri, Matata and Thornton. At Waimana we are fortunate m having tne services of Mr Black who has taken charge of all sport at Waimana and we thank him for the fine job he is doing there. The Taneatua members have taken charge of Taneatua and Ruatoki and although all these members are practically all new First Aiders they are making a really good showing and their report sheets have been a credit to ‘ them. The Paper Mills Brigade have taken charge of the Poroporo and Paroa grounds and I must thank them for their co-operation in this respect. “The number of casualties on sports grounds has been considerably less this year in proportion to the number of fields cared for, especially on the hockey grounds. This is due to the high standard of hockey being played and also to the strict control of the games by the referees.

“Football casualties also have been less but the control of this game is not strict enough although the referees lately are taking a decidedly stronger stand. “I would like to thank the Hockey and Football Associations for their co-operation during the year but would like the secretaries of both organisations to keep us posted with their weekly activities a little better. It makes our job a lot lighter if we knew where the games are being played. “The following is a casualty list covering our activities for the year: Ambulance transport cases 124, mileage covered 5651, average mileage per trip 45.5, cases treated on public duty 91 588, cases treated privately by. members 11. >• “I would like to place on record, our thanks to the Doctors who have assisted. us during the year. Their efforts have be.en of great assistance to us. During the year the Brigade, has been taking a course in Home Nursing given by Miss Miller, Matron of the Hospital. Her efforts have N been untiring and very interesting to all. We wish- to thank her fcr the time .and'effort she Tss put into this clas.s. It means a great deal to our organisation to have the members of the Medical and Nursing Profession taking such a keen interest m our welfare. “The Cadet Division under Cadet Superintendent W. Abbott and Cadet Officer M. Ramson is doing a great job and the boys are very keen. They are contributing greatly to the social side of our organisation and we thank them for their efforts. “To the members of all branches of our service, I wish to express my personal thanks for their loyal support to me during the year. Especially do I wish to thank Transport Officer R. Ferry and Sergeant D. Paterson and Brigade Secretary R. Ellis. “In conclusion I would like to thank the Association for its assistance to the Brigade during the year. In particular on behalf of the Brigade I would like to thank Mr Dillicar for the great job he has done for us during his term as Association Secretary, it is with deep- regret that we hear of his having. to give up this position.” Cadet Divisions

Cadet Suuerintendent W. K. Abbott reported an increase in membership t of 12 cadets, and informed the meeting that the whole Division was how fully uniformed. Twentytwo parades and 20 public duties had been attended. After detailing the social side of the Cadets’ activities, the Cadet Superintendent said special thanks were d;ue to acting Cadet Officer M. Ramson and Cadet Sergeant Eric Dockray, who had worked very hard and had been of great

assistance. Following reference to co-operation between the Cadets and the Cadet Nursing Division, he concluded by thanking the officers of the Cadet Nursing Division for their help. Cadet Nursing Superintendent, Miss F. Fife, reported the strength-, ening of her Division by seven new members. Thirty-six parades had been attended by an 'average of 21 of the 23 members. All members were very keen on their work. She concluded by thanking Mrs Stewart, Cadet Officer, for her help. Election Of Officers The meeting elected the following officers:— Chairman, Mr A. J. Canning; vicechairman, Mr A. Carling; hon. secretary, Mr J. W. G. Smith; committee, Mesdames A. Carling and R. Dockray, Messrs H. Warren, E. R. Dillicar, R. Ferry, A. Riddell, H. L. Drube, V.. J. Allen, K. Needham, D. Paterson, Taneatua representatives, Messrs A. F. McGougan and G. Penny; two Edgecumbe and two Waimana representatives to be appointed.