NOBLE WORK BY WOMAN

Hokitika Guardian, 13 February 1930, Page 8

NOBLE WORK BY WOMAN

A FRIEND OF THE LEPERS. A Florence Nightingale of Central Africa has passed away. She was a Scottish nurse, Mrs Draper, who, with her husband, started a leper colony at Kawimbe, in Northern Rhodesia, about

12 years ago. For years they ran the settlement without outside medical aid while they paid the cost out of their own pockets. Happily, a few years ago, the Governments of Northern Rhodesia and of Tanganyika, realising what a wonderful work was being carried on in an out-of-the-way part of Central Africa, began to make a grant of money and medicines. Mrs Draper’s aprcnticeship' to what proved to be her great life work was first 10 years as a nurse at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Then for 15 years she carried on vilage nursing work in Livingstouia, in connection with the Scot-

ish Mission there. She was then

Miss May Ballantyne, and she married Mr Walter Draper, of the Kawimbe station of the London Missionary Society. Her nursing knowledge supplied just what was lacking for the relief of lepers.

“ My first patient,” Mrs Draper on e said, “ was a poor woman, who had long lived in caves and on roots. Like the other, lepers she was utterly neglected and like a frightened animal, and even when I had persuaded her to come to me for treatment, she would retire every night to sleep under an old hill. But 1 had the joy of seeing

her gradually recover, and now a little village lias grown up of lepers who have been cured, and do not want to return to their old homes.”

At first the lepers were housed in grass huts, which were burned at intervale, as they could not be properly cleansed. Later, however, proper dwellings were erected for them, and Mrs Draper was able to add a little six-roomed hospital for the worst cases. She was utterly fearless, and would often travel, without any white companions, for hundreds of miles through the hush. News of her coming would vapidly spread, and she would have to get out of the “mnehila ” in which faithful Africans were carrying her to give injections to sufferers, kneeling by the roadside, praying for her help.

Poor creatures came from far and near to the kind Englishwoman, who gave them medicine and getle words. Tll many cases she was able to effect a cure, and presently the rulers as - well ais the ruled were talking of her work. It was as. if one of the prophets of old was passing through the land, so eagerly did the sick and maimed drag themselves to Airs' Draper’s feet, so thankfully did they bless her name.

And now it is dono. Tanganyika will see the angel of Kawimhe station no more. After her husband's death in 192/, Mrs Draper struggled on, doing double duty for a. while, and now, worn out by tlic strain of her African years, she has died quite suddenly. She was on leave in England, hut was still working for her poor Africans. Hhe was going to make two speeches l lor them in the week that proved io ; he her last, So this noble woman died as she lived working for others. She was of the line of Florence Nightingale and Father Damien.

Said a Wellington man to his tc bacconist when lie popped, in for 1 cigar the other morning, “What's tin difference between this toasted tobac co I hear so much about, and the or diuary kind?” “All the difference ii the world 1 , Sir,” smilingly repliet the smoke merchant. “Toasting gives the tobacco its quite distinctive flavour and bouquet. Afore than thaf it helps largely to rid it of its nicotine. You can’t smoke more than say a couple of pipes of practically any imported brand you like to mention, with any relish. Too much nicotine in them. But you can smoke toasted tobacco all day long without losing your appetite for it. Can’t harm you either. It’s toasted, and that’s the long and the short of it. Brands? Oh, there are half a dozen. more or less. I sell a lot of lliverhead Gold, hut quite as much Cavendish and Navy Cut. Old smokers generally prefer Cut Plug No. 110. It’s just a matter of taste.” The customer bought a tin of Navy Cut “to see if lie liked it.” He will.— Advt.