NEW ZEALAND NURSES.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 April 1919, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND NURSES.

POOR AUSTRALIAN RECEPTION

WELLINGTON, April 37

When the influenza epidemic was at its worst in Melbourne, thd New Zealand Health Department was asked by the Commonwealth authorities if it could spare some New Zealand nurses who had had experience in connection with the disease. Twenty-live certificated nurses were sent to Australia, but from letters they have written to friends in the Dominion, it seems that their reception was not what might have been expected, in view of the important service they were prepared to render (the community 1 . Ihcy received? Jap welcome, it is reported, and they wore, in many cases, given subordinate duties, which gave them the impression that in hospitals, there was a feeling that they were not w r anted.

Something about these grievances came to the ears of the Hon. G. W. Russell (Minister for Public Health); for he informed your correspondent, who asked him if there was official information regarding the matter, that he believed there had been some trouble over the lack of welcome to the Now Zealand, nurses, but the latest reports showed that the causes of trouble bad been removed.