APPEAL TO PUBLIC

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1930, Page 2

APPEAL TO PUBLIC

OBSTETRICA L ENDOWMENT. To bring about a reduction of the maternal death rate in New Zealand tlie still-birth rate, and to lessen the incidence of disabilities supervening after birth. Tlmse are the objects of the proposed obstetrical endowment 1 scheme, now being launched through- i »ut New Zealand. An appeal to the | public is being made by tiie New Zea- j and Obstetrical Society (X.Z. Branch J'.M.A) for a fund of £ -‘'5,000 a>s an endowment for tiie Obstetrical Department of the Dominion Medical j School. Every. up-to-date medical \ school in the Empire now has its own ’arge midwifery hospital, in which tho itndents live in residence during the neriod of their-practical obstetrical in- 1 stmetion. The.JNcw Zealand School to , date has no isorh hospital. Thanks to private endowments, the departments of surgery and medicine in the ! New Zealand School have been brought; horoughly up-to-date. Improvements have also been recently effected in the l-epartnients of anatomy, bacteriology and pathology. For lack of funds there had been no capital improvement n the midwifery department for the past 20 years. The Government has announced a grant of £50,003, for the Tection of an up-to-date midwifery hospital in connection with the Dominion Medical School. This gra.iu will not provide anything for teaching salaries, and such a hospital will he useless without a good man at the head of affairs. There are many incidental expense's, apart from the professor’s salary, “and if New Zealand is not to' lag behind the rest of the Empire in teaching obstetrics, an endowment’ fund of £2-5,000 will have to he found. This, phis subsidy, will ’ Row a snlcy of £2OOO to the professor and some £SOO for junior assistants. Hence the appeal now m.n'e by the Obstetrical Society. This call will he non-recurring. A message from her Majesty the

Queen received through his 'Excellency the Administrator of New Zeal sud Sir Michael Myers, stated: “I have learned with great interest, that a campaign is to be opened this .nrmth iii New Zealand to raise the sum of £50,000 for the endowment of a chair of midwifery and gynaecology, in hie University of Otago. 1 have for n: •my years been deeply concernsd ni all matters affecting the wed ire of mothers and children, and 1 recog t-’-e that it is by the advancement .1 al and public knowledge that progress in this field can most effectively be made. It gives me (special plemare therefore, to hear of the proposal to further a professional chair in order to further in the sphere cJf education the efforts alreadv being made in the "Dominion, Hr th° protection ol motheihood and' the welfare of infancy, and so to achieve a further saving of valuable liv n s.”

It is confidently expected that the people of New Zealand will recognise the urgent importance of the appeal, and that they will do 'their duty. The welfare of the mothers is equally as important as that of the inlants. A lecture will he given at the few n Hall. Hokitika to-morrow night by an expert on the subiert. Full details of the appeal are published on page one of this-issue.