HOAX ON HOSPITAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 September 1932, Page 3

HOAX ON HOSPITAL

YEARLY HAPPENING MYSTERIOUS LETTERS SENT TO MYTHICAL STAFF MEMBERS. INFERIORITY COMPLEX HINTED. Sydney, Saturday. Every spring for fifteen years, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital has reT eeived mysterious mail addressed to , mythical staff members, the envelopes containing blank sheets of paper and coming from various parts of the world. Last week's hatch from Wellington (N.Z.) was addressed to Sir Lindsay Sawkins (head surgeon), Sister Middleton (head sister), Mrs. Harry Sawkins (head matron), an^ the Ven. Archdeacon Sawkins (ch'aplain). The names nsed are always Sawkins or Middleton, and a Macquarie Street speeialist hazards the opinion that the sender might he someone with a grudge against a Sawkins or a Middleton and seeks to bring ridicule upon the name. Then, again, he thought, it might be someone with a eurious sence of humour who enjoyed the annual publicity which his little joke received. Earls and Kings. "I have known people suffering from inferiority," he said, "to address letters to famous people, even to the King, and leave the envelopes about for others to read. "One young man at a boardinghouse left letters on the hallstand to be posted, addressed to the Duke of York, to a baronet with his own name, and a third to arf earl. He knew none of th'ese people, but was quite satisfied with the prestige the letters won for him among his fellow-hoarders. Rang the Governor. |In a Pott's Point guest-house a man used to ring the Governor and carry cn intimate conversations which everyone in the drawing-room could overheai'. But he was holding down the receiver all the time."