ALWAYS AT CALL

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 48, 10 December 1952, Page 5

ALWAYS AT CALL

ST. JOHN AMBULANCE Perhaps it is because the St. John Ambulance Brigade is always there vhen wanted, during parades and street processfbns, at football matches and race meetings, at crowded seaside resorts or large public gatherings of every sort, that we are apt to take it very much for granted, observes the writer of an article in the official A.A. Bulletin. Yet every day, year in and year out, someone somewhere owes his life or her life to the vigilance, expert knowledge and prompt action of the Brigade.

A local resident, drawing our attention to the article referred to above, points out that the loyal members of the Taupo S.J.A.B. maintain the 24 hr, 7 day service, (holdays inclusive exactly as they do in Auckland. 'But" he adds, "what is not generally known is that we pay our cwn lecture fees, buy all our text and other books, and give our services; men and women alike, entirely gratuitously. At times we also come in for a deal of (perhaps good natured) banter such as "Aspro Wollops,,, and Zam Buks," -but that does not inany way deter us, but I do think our entirely voluntary work should be better known. It is for the service of mankind."

Every part of the British Empire (to quote from the A.A. Bulletin article), has its own St. John unit, and most of the Empire's police forces are trained and certified in first-aid by St. John — the Royal Canadian Mountcjid Polce, the -South African Police, the Palestine Police and the Indian Police. Brigade men and women save thousands of lives year after year under every conceivable condition. They are the "friends in need/" to those who have been mauled. by jungle giants, bitten by crocodiles, stung by poisonous snakes or wounded by spears or arrows. Overseas, people of all colours, classes and creeds — Chinese, Burmese, Hindus, Japanese, Moslemsi, Sikhs, and folk— work side by side for the common good. Most motorists in England arefamiliar with the first-aid huts, built and maintained by the St. John men and found on almost every, major road and at dangerous corners where accidents are not infrequent. Some idea of the debt motorists there owe to the Brigade men can be gained from the following figures: In twelve months, members of St. John assisted more than 450,000 casualties on British roads; during this period, heir 600 ambulances travelled osme 2,500,000 miles to carry • 200,000 victims to and from hospitals.