WILFRED GRENFELL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 15, 11 February 1909, Page 4

WILFRED GRENFELL.

If there is a liner man in ttie whole wide world than Dr. Wilfred llrcnfell, of Newfoundland and Labrador, we would very much like to know who he is. We know of no other work that is at once no self-sacrificing, so mil oi hardships and danger, and so immensely beneficial. When Dr. (irenfell came to Labrador in say* a friend ol his. willing in the American lleview of Review-, he found I lie ;!ol>o permanent residents and the :W,UOt) summer lislier folks from Newfoundland almost without religious ministration or medical aid, in tlw clutches of merchants, and traders who contrived to keep tlieni in debt all their lives : "with children barefooted and naked in a zero temperature, and parents so" beggared as to borrow each other's clothes to come to' him for treatment ; with education virtu.,..y unknown, the ruling powers indifferent if not criminally neglectful, and the religion a veritable land of desolation for all connected with it." In Hi years Dr. (Irenfell has effected a marvellous change. " Preacher. teacher, physician, surgeon, magistrate. policeman, navigator, pilot, charity commissioner, orphans' guardian, 'irand almonger of the wiliole sea-board, wreck investigator, cartographer, resciircr of imperilled li-hcrmen, and salvager of stranded crafts—he is a perambulating Providojiee to every man whose livelihood is secured on the lonely, desolate seaboard." j ilis mail lias built, hospitals, orphanages, mills, and workshops, established co-operalive stores, started trade classes and opened day and night schools, founded libraries, built schooners with lumber from his own mills, installed hi- own telegraphs Hid telephones, charted the entire sea board of l-abrador, and mapped out a good deal of tile land, ..nd imported reindeer from Norway, lie must be one of the most versatile men iu the world, for not only does he attend to sick people, and supervise the work of all the institutions lie has founded, but navigates his ship, and when she loses a propellor or springs a leak, beaches her and repairs her, perhaps performing a critical operaHon between tides. AN HEiiOlC SOUL.

llis mast thrilling experience was going adrift on an ice Hoe and nearly perishing. In going to a patient (JO miles away, tile ice broke under liim as he was crossing aji inlet, lie took refuge with his dogs on a piece of ice the size of a dinner table~ a day To protect himself from the terrible cold, lie killed his dogs and used their skins for covering, their bodies for a wind-shield, and their frozen , legs as a pole on which to wave his shirt as a signal for help. Alien rescued his I hands and feet were severely frost bitten and he was snow-blind. This, "however. was only one of his many escapes. " During a winter ho will travel 2!H)l> miles over a frozen wilderness with -now shoes and dog sleds, visiting every family. "curing without pay, and laboring without stint,'' battling with blizzard*. begirt by a dreary solitude, sleeping in the snow, feeding as conditions permit, imperilling life ami limb in the drifts or falling through the iev coverings of the lakes 01 ureams. and encountering danger unsurpassed in the annals of arctic explorers. 11n salary is diily CWO a year, and every penny of that which he can spare goes into his i work. If a >chenve does «<»t pay be , ; shares the lo<s. but if il brings in a protit the money goes to the Mission funds. The value of his work h;H been widely recognised. Tire King created him a t'.M.tl.. Lord Stvathcona ileelaves him to the most useful man in Xorlh America io-dav, President Roi..?veldt, Karl Orey, .Mr Hoot, and the American ( T nivers!ties, all take a great interest in him. and leading American specialists have cruised with him and performed some of the most delicate operations known to medical science. The man himself is the villi of modesty. "Plea-e given ther* =' fuller share of credit," he writes to the author of the article, "'and spare me the praise so generously given me often, but which I honestly do not d<'>erve. "Moreover. we all just love tile work—a:ul the bunkum about sacrifice a7id so on. is purely invented. As the Yankees say. • It is a bully thing to be up against a problem.' •'