WHAT GRIT WILL DO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 256, 4 December 1909, Page 1

WHAT GRIT WILL DO.

We referred recently to the philanthropic work being dyne in England by l)r. VV. L. Christie, a Xew Zealand old boy. A correspondent to a Duncdin paper furnishes the following interest- i ing information regarding the doctor's career:—"Dr. W. Lcdingliam Christie left the plough on his lather's farm when at the age of 17, and went direct, without any other special teaching tliau that which lie gave hiniseii in his spare time, and took the mastership <ji the Stony Creek school, and attended clashes at Milton under Mr. W. Malcolm, then rector of the Tokomarairo Grammar ■School. Then he was appointed assistant at Tapanui school, and studied hard and passed for matriculation at Otago University, and resolved on the study of medicine. The Medical School then was only a smajl affair. He could not get Home to complete his course, as Messrs Brodie, Jetfcoate, and P. A Lindsay did, anil iiad to wait a year for the appointment of extra professors to complete his third year's course. He took up the teaching profession during that period, having charge of Dipton school in Southland. He was the first M.B. and M.D. of the New Zealand University. After practising at Outram and Milton, where his wife diea, leaving him with an infant daughter, he went to London, and passed successively as iU.U.C.S. and I'.R.C.S. He then studied on the Continent, and practised at Salisbury, finally settling down at Clifton, Bristol, lie is a n:enrker of il|he Bristol Board of Guardians, and takes a interest in politics, having been asked more than once to contest a seal for the House of Commons' in the Tariff Reform interest. A few years ago lie married agaiu. His only daughter, born at Milton, is studying medicine. Prior to that, Miss Christie was at a ladies' college with some of the daughters oi our present Governor. Dr. Christie imbibed a deep love for his profession from Professor Scott, of Otago University. fie thinks the waste of child life in England something appalling. Dr. Christie, as a senior medical student, was also for a time and during his college career locum tenons for Dr. Roberts, in charge of the Dunedin Hospital.