LEPERS AT MAKOGAI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 244, 12 September 1940, Page 6

LEPERS AT MAKOGAI.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —For a number oi years past the. people of New Zealand have sent gifts at Christmas time to the GO7 lepers who are isolated at Makogai, a lonely isle in the Fiji group. One hundred and twenty-seven of these lepers are from New Zealand’s dependencies. There are 89 leper children on the island. These sadly afflicted people look forward to this festive season with pleasant anticipation of the arrival of the steamer from New Zealand bearing gifts and messages of goodwill. However difficult our own circumstances at present are, when they are compared with the lot of these stricken, people we find that we have much to be thankful for, namely, that we continue to enjoy good health and have our liberty. On behalf of our less fortunate friends, therefore, I have no hesitation in once again appealing to the generosity of the people of New Zealand to supply them with such Christmas gifts as gramophone records, jig-saw puzzles, games toys, musical instruments, sewing silks, embroidery cottons, etc., soap, sweets, pipes, tobacco. Gifts of money will be most useful.

We -wish to take this opportunity to tha.nk the Postmaster-General and the Minister of Railways for having kindly reduced charges to half-rates on all parcels addressed to me for the lepers. Donations may be sent to me at 172 Bealev Avenue, Christchurch, C. 1., and all gifts will be duly acknowledged bv letter. Onr Empire is passing through a crisis and the “tew crumbs” we give to the lepers will not hinder our cause, rather wdl they brine God’s blessing on us all. —Yours faitlifullv, P. J. TWOMEV. Honorary Collector. Christchurch, 10/9/40.