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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10558, 13 February 1912, Page 5

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THE BUCHANAN GIFT. The handsome brick structure now Hearing completion in the South Wairarapa Hospital grounds at Greytown, the gift to the hospital and charitable district of Wairarapa (which extends as far n«rth as Pahiatua), by Mr W. 0. Buchanan, M.P., is to bo publicly recognised. Hitherto, incurable cases from the Wairarapa have had to bo sent to Wellington, and in some instances at considerable expense to the local bodies. The Wairarapa District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board had already recognised that sooner or later a home for incurables would have to bo erected, and the gift of Mr Buchanan has saved a considerable sum of the ratepayers' money, as it has cost between £6OOO and £7OOO. At a public meeting held at Greytown last week to discuss the most suitable way of publicly recognising the gift, it was mentioned that the gift is the outcome of an incident that appealed to Mr Buchanan not so very long ago. As is well known, Mr Buchanan is a largo employer of labour, and that he is held in high esteem by his employees is evidenced by the fact that lie has some in his employ who have been there for the past twenty and thirty years, while there are others now farming in the Wairarapa on their own holdings, who owe their

training and success to the period J they spent in the employ of the [ squire of Tupurupuru. One of his J old and esteemed employees, who had i borne the heat and stress of the day in "the Wairarapa; was overcome with misfortuno that compelled him to cnJ ter a home for incurables at Wellington. It was one of Mr Buchanan's duties on every occasion he visited Wellington to call on this in-, valid, and the old man's cry was always that he wanted to die in the Wairarapa. When his end arriml, Mr Buchanan had the poor old man brought to the Wairarapa, and buried at Clarevill© at his own expense. This incident appealed to Mr Buchanan so much that he has given the Wairarapa the humane'• monument at Greytown, which, will, stand to lis everlasting credit. With the object of having the monument to recognise the handsome gift fully representat--1 ive of the district to which the "home I extends its benefits, a meeting of representatives from all the local bodies will be held shortly. To publicly recognise a gift- of this nature is unique for the Wairarapa, and in what form it should take is exercising the minds of the public. In Scotland, arid other Homo land places, gifts of the character indicated are frequently recognised by a handsome painting in oils depicting the gift, while at Auckland, the donor of a humane gift of this nature was presented with a black and white painting of the i same. What the Wairarapa -people will do to publicly recognise Mr Buchanan's generosity is still a matter of thought. As one remarked at the public meeting at Greytown, the.home is one of the finest gifts that the district could receive, and will stand to the everlasting credit of "the grand old man."