HUMANITARIAN CAUSES

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 41, 22 October 1952, Page 4

HUMANITARIAN CAUSES

The people of Taupo are usually generous in their response to appeals to charitable sentiment. There are many hiimanatarian causes which are largely dependent upon the voluntary support of local communities large and small. There is the Crippled Children's Fund, the Children's Health Camps and so on. Taupo gave quite recently by way of a str'eet collection day to the former worthy object. The sale of health stamps provides a contribution to the latter. For a small community like Taupo the total contribution in each instance may seem very modest by comparison with that raised in the larger centres. A drop in the bucket, one might say. But as the poet has written, "little drops of water make the ocean." It is the grand aggregate that counts. An appeal is now being made on behalf of the campaign for dealing with the dreaded disease of leprosy. Tfcanks to new methods in medical practice, and the valuable results oi patient and painstaking research, the disease is slowly yielding to treatment. Successful recoveries are showing a rising percentage in response to the adminstration of "sulphones." The | campaign, however, makes heavy deinands on funds for hospitals, staffs and drugs. The associated evils of uncleanliness and insanitary conditions have also to be grappled with and overcome. The stronghold of the disease is in the East and in the Pacific, but the boundaries of the enemy's country are being gradually narrowed as the campaign of extermination progresses. Ultimate victory seems now certain. Such a prospect of relief for suffering humanity should supply a strong incentive to charitable giving. We commend the garden fete announced elsewhere to the humanitarian interest and support of the public of Taupo. ,-em »