Letters to the Editor

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 162, 27 July 1937, Page 3

Letters to the Editor

Genesis of Napier Hospital Sir — By the merest chance I opened an old file of your paper at the Turnbull Library to-day and found that tliis showed your paper to have been in existence in 1589 and therefore rnuoh the oldest in tlic* Domanion if not the world. The heading on one pago in April 1859, lias been misplaced .and shows 1589. This is a tliing that uiay happen even in the best regulated paper but it is of sonie interest. This interest was mcreased by the perusal of a letter in your eorrespondence colutnns headed "Dispensary or Hospital." The writer, "An Elector," after eongratulating tlio people for a move towards separation of the province and stressing the need for more attention to the labouring classes among the fast-arriving immigrants, bewails -the "neglect of all comforts and accoumiodation." This, he said, was spread by them and "if nothing is done to remedy these wants, of course the supply. of labour will decrease." He then eoncludes— and this is the real point of his letter— "When the Provineial Couueil meet, sonie lneasures will be taken to remedy the wants of the pt'oyince, and in the meantime,' not oniy on the seore of our interests but on that of humauity, 1 propose that the ladies throughout the whole provinee prepare and provide articlea .for a hancy Fair to be held in the new Alasomc Hall, the proceeds of which are to be applied as the starting sum for donations and ycarly sul>scriptions, towards establishing the

Napier Dispensary or a teniporary hosliital.'' In viewing your Hospital Gommission's report aud tho fact that you liave such a fine buildingr the genesis of your institution may be t0 some of interest. — Yours, ete. INTEKESTED. Wellington, July 25, 1937.