A BIG PROPOSAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 171, 19 January 1914, Page 4

A BIG PROPOSAL.

H>l! IiADICM LVKTITCTE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Palmerston X., January 13. Dr. Martin, superintendent of tho l'alinerstou ll.ispitnl, advocated last year the purchase, of radium for the cure of cancer. The proposal then had a mixed rccepliun, tunny thinking that tllti great eost was not justified in view of .Hie other needs of the hospital. Tho Hun. Mr. V, bodes will be interviewed on the subject on Monday, and tho Hospi- ■ tal Board will submit their case for the establishment of n radium institute here. The (board's chairman (Mr. J. G. Wil■son, writing to the local press on Thurs. day, says, inter alia:—"No one regretted more than I did the determination to 'wait and see' when Dr. Martin firafc suggested that we. should try to procur* a. supply of radium for the*hospital, l' therefore welcome his determination to again place tin; matter before the board. The paper which I read at the Hospital Hoard. Conference some three yean ago on the subject (based on information supplied s>y Dr. Martin) was received! ■ almost without comment. Since then all have watched with the utmost interest the experiments which have been ! conducted in every country in Europo with radium. There can bo now no doubt of its value in treating disease, t believe that the board will second any effort tlmt Dr. Martin makes most cordinlly. His suggestion that the radiiini institute should be at Palmerston North is based on the principal of the greatest (food for the greatest number. Lines of railway meet in Palmerston Xorth from (1) Xew Plymouth and Wanganuij (3) from Auckland; (3) from Hawke's Bay; (4) from Wuiraiapa; (5) from Wellington. And your centre can 4>e reached in a few hours from all these districts. It should be the institute for the 'North Island, and we. can therefore appeal-t0,,. the whole island for assistance. it not be. better to ask for £IO,OOO from the public? This would give (with Government subsidy) a sum of £24,000 for tlio building apparatus."