Matron’s Lonely Work Training Half-castes

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 29, 4 February 1937, Page 11

Matron’s Lonely Work Training Half-castes

In tho centre of Australia, 1000 miles from Darwin in tho north and 987 miles from Adelaide in the south, the Govern ment is training the half-castes of Aus tralia to take their place as useful citizens. For two years it has been th< duty of Mr and Mrs R. J. Jones t( help in this work at Alice Springs where the half-caste is given his or hej chance in life. As matron of thcf Alice Springs Half caste Institution, of which her husbanc was superintendent, Mrs Jones wai called upon to tend to the spiritual, as well as the physical, needs of these people. She has had babies as young a: 12 months old to care for, although usually the children are not brought tc the institution until they arc two years of age. Mrs Jones was recently in Brisbane en route to Darwin, where she went tc join her husband, who was appointed curator of a Lepersarium Island, seven miles from Darwin, and she spoke ot her work at Alice Springs. "They are a fine type of half-caste in this district, and tho children grow up willing to make tho best of life, ’ Mrs Jones said. “Although they have no initiative they are good workers and rarely disobedient. / * “Of the 134 inmates at the institution 57 are girls being trained in house work. The girls make all their owe clothes, and their daily cooking includ es 70 loaves of bread. They may return to the institution on the loss of 8 position. The boys remain only until they are 14 years old, when they arc usually apprenticed on cattle stations They make excellent stockmen. ” Mrs Jones has given most of her life to the service of others. As a younj giH she was trained as a nurse during the war, and later spent two and a-halJ years in Salonica, Greece and Egypt and later nursed on hospital ships After the war she was one of the firsi nurses of the Australian Inland Missior to work at Victoria Rivers Downs. She is a member of the Royal Victoriar Trained Nurses’ Association.