OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1941, Page 6

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

STATEMENT & REPORT (To the Editor.) Sir. —May I make use of your space to express my astonishment at Mrs Robertson making the statement, at Mr Robertson’s meeting last night, that she was wrongly reported re her statement made at the women’s meeting on the 15th inst. Her memory is very short, for she was absolutely correctly reported.—l am, etc., FAIR PLAY. Masterton, September 23. STATE MEDICAL SERVICE (To the Editor.) Sir, —In your issue of September 17, Dr. Parr expresses the opinion that the above service would make for “shoddy, careless work,” and that under the Act “conscientious care .... would languish and. expire." As I come from a district (Takaka) where the Act is in operation, I am able to inform your readers that in actual practice Dr. Farr’s fears are not borne out. The scheme- is a great success.

In fact, given conscientiousness in the- profession. I fail to see how it could be otherwise. If the ideal of the E.M.A. is to aid suffering humanity, it is safe to assume that patients are conscientiously cared for now, and will be always conscientiously cared for, irrespective of any financial, political, or personal considerations of the doctors whatsoever.

Yet your correspondent says that under the Act conscientiousness would “languish and expire.” This is to aver that the conscientiousness of the medical profession is a matter of expediency. This could not be so. Conscientiousness is in the very marrow of a man. It does not vary with his moods. It does not flare up or languish just as self-interest is or is not served. A man cannot be a gentleman today and a cad. tomorrow, conscientious today and unscrupulous tomorrow. He is either conscientious or unscrupulous—a Dr. Jeykl or a Mr Hyde—not both or either as occasion requires or interests dictate.

To argue that doctors will not be conscientious under the Act, is to say that they are not conscientious now. To say that the care of a patient under the Act will be different from the care cf the patient now is to say that the care of the patient varies just as he serves or does not serve the doctors interest or that the rich will receive better treatment than the poor. In certain cases this may be so. In the majority of cases I trust that it is not. But if it is the general rule then all that I can say is that the Government must be congratulated on its effort to improve matters for the working people of the Dominion. The doctor concludes his letter by saying that the Act "would demoralise a company of angels." If his letter correctly sums up the position as far as the B.M.A. is concerned, he need have no fear of his association becoming demoralised.—l am, etc., J. P. CARMINE. Masterton. September 23. APPEAL FOR LEPERS (To the Editor) Sir,—l look upon it as my duty to remind your readers once again of the sad existence of 675 of our sick friends on the Makogai Island Leper Station. Since 1925, when the Leper Station on Quail Island, Lyttelton, was closed, all of our leper patients have been sent to this lonely outpost very close to our shores, and today' the New Zealand Government maintains approximately 100 of these patients from our dependencies. For a number of years past we have befriended these people with gifts at j Christmas time and they look upon us as their true friends. I realise to the full that this war causes enormous sacrifices for all, but in God’s name I ask for a “few crumbs from the table” to help to brighten the lives of these stricken ones. The few gifts we give to these people will bring a blessing on New Zealand and may we later hoar from the Master’s lips these words: “Each time you comforted these, my lepers, you comforted Me.” All gifts will be acknowledged by me personally. The Postmaster-Gen-eral has kindly reduced charges to half-rates on all parcels addressed to me for the lepers. Nothing is too small for the need is great—l am, etc., P. J. TWOMEY, Hon Collector, Makogai Leper Fund. 172 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch, September 23. LOCAL CHURCH HISTORY (To the Editor) Sir,—The forthcoming annual Confirmation service to be held at St Matthew’s Church would seem an opportunity for my' reciting, in your widelyread columns, the names of the thirteen candidates, from among Wairarapa pioneer families, offering themselves as candidates for Confirmation (at Greytown) on Sunday, November 11, 1866: Rhodes Donald, Charles John Hare, Arthur William Jupp, Richard Bright, Mary Varnham, Helen Spratt, Caroline Evans, Maria Greathead. Agnes Jupp, Emma Ticehurst, Jane Bright, Margaret Tankersley, and Mary Louisa Fairbrother. No further Confirmation services were held in the Wairarapa until Sunday, September 27, 1868, and this was followed by one (still at Greytown) held on Easter Day, April 9, 1871. Masterton’s first service of similar kind took place in the following week, on April 16. To road over the names of the first twelve or more lists of candidates presenting themselves for Confirmation later on. at. Carterton and Featherston, revives recent memory of the Pioneer Roll Call appearing in your columns during Centennial celebration period, and of which so many names then appearing are to be found in these old church records from which the above information was gleaned. I am only sorry limited space at present prevents me reciting the dates and names of all candidates, over at least the first two decades of local Anglican Church history, as no more interesting sidelight (on non-census days of early settlement population increases) can be gleaned, so readily, by other means. However, reverting to statistics of candidates for baptismal blessings, I might now say that the half-century mark reveals 3277 baptisms—of which 1569 were boys and 1708 were girls—thus a win for the “female franchise” of the then future by 139 votes. Should any of your readers desire further information upon such subjects, and space permits its appearance in your columns, the same can be supplied—l am, etc., N.J.B. 1 Masterton, September 23,