CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 390, 16 May 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

"THE LADY OF THE LAMP." Florence Nightingale's name is reverenced by more than British people 'throughout the world, because she has I devoted the whole of her life to the service of others. Naturally quite unostentatious, her great deeds have beel j too glowing to be hidden, and she has always shown that she desired no recompense, except the gladness that comes after work well done. The i nonagenarian nurse, so the cables tell l us, was kindly deceived by her friends las to the death of the King, and let j 1 her suppose that it was King Edward and not King George who congratulated' her on her ninetieth birthday. Florence Nightingale, like many other women noted for good deeds, was born "in the purple," and there was never any need for her to give up her life for the sick and the sorrowing. When quite young she was educated in nursing by the Protestant Sisters of Mercy at Kaiserwertli, Germany, and from thence onward she devoted her great skill and organising capacity to the relief of the sick. In 1854 her opportunity came, and she went to the seat of war in the Crimea, At grim Scutari she ceaselessly worked to relieve soldiers stricken by disease, and to her gallant fight were due hundreds on hundreds of lives. She organised the first really efficient nursing staff to work on British battlefields, hours of the day and night. Grateful soldiers worshipped "the Lady of the Lamp," and nations blessed her. When land, England gave her £50,000. Money, except that it might be used for the furtherance of her campaign agarnst disease, was unconsidered by her, and with this sum she opened the Nightingale Home for the Training of Nurses. From this establishment grew the profession of skilled modern nursing. (She has probably received more honors than any woman living, for it has been found impossible to recognise her deeds for the nation in the common way. She has travelled very largely, ,but never for any other purpose than that which has actuated aher entire life. Her publications are varied and authoritative, especially in regard to the physical health of the Army in India (a book on which she published in 1863), which has been of inestimable value. It is not often that a woman becomes a national personage, and in the case of Florence Nightingale, whom kings are proud to honor, has the mere development of the best' feminine instincts been the cause of her eminence. She is one of the finest examples in history of the virtue which countless woman possess—a total unselfishness, and an utter devotion to the needs of others. Where the fine rnstinct is added to extraordinary skill and mental attainment, the result is very happy.

OUTRAGED FEELINGS. Mr. Reeves, formerly High Commissioner | in London and Financial Adviser to the 1 Government, has .resigned the latter pojsition because several memibers of the I New Zealand House of Representatives thought that £3OO a year was a huge . price to pay for the service. When Mr. ] Reeves heard that some members of i Parliament had tried to depose him from | his '•sinecure" he most naturally rei signed it. It is quite clear that the lack | of his services is a loss to the country. iFor many years the late New Zealand I High Commissioner has lived in London land in high official circles. The suggestion that Mr. Hall-Jones should have tftKen up the duties of Financial Adviser, together with his official position, was quite worthy of the hecklers, for Mr. Hall-Jones has never arrogated to himself any outstanding knowledge of finance, and he certainly is not "au fait" with financial matters as Mr. Reeves undoubtedly is. Mr. Reeves, during his occupancy of the High Commissionership, did -not rush from Edin-i jburgh to London, or from Birmingham | to the capital to press the hand of Mr. So and So from the baokMoeks. If Mr. Reeves had anything better to do in Edinburgh or Birmingham, we don't Name him for staying there. If he was too busv to show every colonial visitor the Nelson Monument or Madame Tus'saud's, this seems to he no adequate reason for holding that he was too big for his boots and was acting a "cut above " the people who expected him to act as a sort of social courier and introducer general. On the other hand, Mr. Reeves has served his country well, both as a Minister in its Parliament, and n* its renresentative in London. Happily. Mr. Reeves will not starve, and no doubt his directorship of the School of Economics will provide him with a crust.

If Mr. Hall-Jones cannot find time to get to Tilbury to meet all the New Zealand members of Road Boards andCounty Councils this year, Parliamentought to seriously consider the position. For any of these gentlemen to have their feelings outraged in the Heart of the Empire, is too much.