SCENES FROM MAKOGAI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1940, Page 3

SCENES FROM MAKOGAI

NEW ZEALANDERS’ ASSISTANCE APPRECIATED. VISIT TO LEPER STATION. “I have before me the dying requests of men and women to remind you and yours of their existence," states Mr P. J. Twomey, of Christchurch. "In order to help me in this task I shall be grateful if you will come with me for a short visit to the Makogai Leper Station where there are 607 patients. “In the women's ward in the hospital a beautiful young woman lies on a bed of suffering and at first sight she seems quite well. We go closer and we notice' that the ears have been attacked and that she has lost several fingers. She shows us some embroidery work that she has done with material sent by some unknown friend in New Zealand. (Perhaps this was your present). Also she has nearly completed a beautiful bedspread. We converse for a little time and she tells us that she has a husband and four children in a small village about 300 miles away and does not hold out much hope of seeing them again. But then with tears of joy in her eyes she says how good God has been to her in giving her so many kind friends in New Zealand. It is drawing near Christmas and herj supplies of embroidery cottons and silks etc. are running short. ‘Never mind, never mind,’ she exclaims, 'My true friends in New Zealand are sure to send me some in the Christmas boat.’ Such a scene as this would move a heart of stone. “In another room we see a young half-caste woman barely 25 years of age. She welcomes our visit but it is evident to us that she will not live much longer. The disease has paralysed her limbs. Her husband has been sent for and while we are in conversation he arrives. The sister warns him that he must not touch tier or go near her bed. The poor sufferer is most anxious about her children and cries out in anguish ‘Dear John, are my two little ones free from this dead disease.’ He assures her that all is well and then the poor woman falls fast asleep from sheer exhaustion. Her husband is much upset and tells us that he has come from his home 400 miles aifray in order to see his loved one before the end. He says that in her letters to him she often refers to the many kindnesses she has received from unknown friends in New Zealand.”