DOCTOR SMITH OF HOKIANGA

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 4

DOCTOR SMITH OF HOKIANGA

IReyiejced by M. C. R.l Doctor Smith Hokianga’s “King of the North.” By G. Kemble Welch. Blackwood and Janet Paul. 244 PPNot many men in New Zealand become a legend in their own lifetime. In his biography of “Dr. Smith, Hokianga’s ‘King of the North’,” Dr. Welch writes about a man already well known as “Rawene” Smith, from the name of the little Hokianga town where he lived and worked for 34 years, and to which he brought a fame it had never known before. Dr. Welch has gone to great pains to secure material for this book—by studying Whangarei and Kaikohe papers, the records of the Northland Hospital Board, Dr. Smith’s diaries and notebooks, and his published works on “Backblocks Medicine,” and by talking to people who knew him well. Sometimes the author quotes local critics without naming them, and the reader has no means of judging whether the statements made are factual or mere malicious gossip. Dr. Smith would have known how to deal with such critics. Indeed, as some of the stories in this book would indicate, he would have relished the chance!

But for the most part this book gives us a fair and balanced picture of one of the kindest, most exasperating, most remarkable men in New Zealand has known this century. He stalks through the pages, almost as large as life, but not quite as lovable as he was to those who knew him for many years. Dr. Welch knew him well, but only for his last three difficult years in Hokianga—l94s-1948.

Rawene is still an isolated area. When the Smiths arrived in 1914 it was even; more remote. Transport was. by horse or launch. Hospital' facilities were primitive. The I author shows us the brilliant' young surgeon from Edin-! burgh hurling himself into the fight for better conditions' with all the zeal of a crusader.' Apparently his medical and surgical work was only a part of his task. He was certain he knew what was needed. All he had to do was to convince the responsible officials. A large part of this book is concerned with the “negotiations which were the background of Dr. Smith’s daily life, matters for constant concern, for frustration, and sometimes rage and despair.” When he could not move the officials, Dr. Smith took matters into his own hands. There are some wonderful stories told here of his early days—-

the great tobacco growing scheme, and the casino to raise money for the new hospital in Rawene, which was to become his pride and joy. The sufferings of the unemployed in the depression years were intolerable to a man with his humanitarian sympathies. Soon he was off on another crusade as the first leader of the Social Credit movement. This ended in failure, but in other ventures, such as his passionate advocacy of socialised medicine, he was clearly ahead of his time. His tendency to dogmatism and intolerance was obviously increased by his uphill battles to secure the reforms he believed were so necessary. In addition, as Sir Douglas Robb points out in his foreword, G. M. Smith was virtually isolated in his remote area, cut off from “the daily and hourly contacts with his fellows and his peers, and the often unconscious criticism that leads to adjustment of thoughts and opinions.” He seldom left Hokianga, it is true, but Dr. Welch tells us of the steady stream of eminent visitors who made the pilgrimage to Rawene to talk politics or philosophy or medicine with G. M., or discuss books with Mrs Smith. Some of us remember other visitors, not so eminent, and! more in need of help, who! came to stay, sometimes for* months, in the warmly hospitable Smith house, to be fed on “plenty milk,” and “plenty meat,” and sent away restored. 1 “G. M.” was involved in sol many activities that his bio-1 grapher has had to content; himself with a mere outline of many of them. But he has found room for quotations from “G. M.’s” forceful and provocative speeches and for many amusing and moving anecdotes. This is presumably Dr. Welch’s first book and it bears some marks of the inexperienced writer. It is. however, a lively, stimulating production, likely to hold 1 the interest of many readers! who never knew Rawene, or Smith. One question remains, when the last page is reached:' were what Sir Douglas Robb calls "the great natural endow, j ments” of G. M. Smith largely wasted because he stayed in Rawene? One answer is in the book, in the poem of Roy McFadden’s which Dr. Smith copied into his notebook in his last year in Hokianga. There is no need for flowers For men who died for a dream But the mighty notion towers And the thing endures. This, surely, was not the philosophy of a frustrated | and disappointed man.

And the people of Rawene gave their answer which is not in this book, but on the memorial they erected to him and his wife. TO THE MEMORY OF GEORGE McCALL SMITH. “THE DOCTOR” IN THIS DISTRICT AND MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT FROM 1914 TO 1945. WAS ALSO A FARMER, TOWN COUNCILLOR AND BY HIS STRENGTH OF PERSONALITY BECAME PART OF OUR WAY OF LIFE. NO CALL WAS TOO FAR. NO TRACK TOO ROUGH. HE SERVED US WELL. HE DESIGNED THE RAWENE HOSPITAL AND SET UP THE HOKIANGA CO-OPERATIVE MEDICAL SERVICE OF DOCTORS. NURSES AND PEOPLE —HIS TRUE MEMORIAL

And on the opposite side of the memorial, they wrote in memory of his wife, Lucy, “The Calm Foundation of Her Husband’s Turbulent World.” This book confirms that his life was turbulent indeed—but certainly not wasted!