NORFOLK ISLAND HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 219, 3 September 1943, Page 3

NORFOLK ISLAND HISTORY

Sir,-Referring to the report of the interview with Mrs. Judith Terry appearing in your issue of August 13, in which the statement that "when she was in Norfolk Island she raised money for an X-ray plant for the hospital by putting on his plays," I wish to point out that to my personal knowledge this is not actually correct if it implies that Mrs. Terry did in fact pay the whole cost of that equipment. The X-ray plant was purchased by the late Dr. L. S. Duke, at that. time Government Medical Officer, and an "X-ray Committee" was set up, whose duty it was to canvass for subscriptions towards the _ purchase money. Each adult was asked to pay a guinea, in return for which he or she would be entitled to be X-rayed without any further, charge than the cost of the plants. Much good work was done by the members of that committee, but the cost, £200, was a long way from being gathered in, after a period of a couple of years or so, and when an entirely new Hospital Board was elected in 1931, the committee was very glad to be relieved of its task, and the responsibility was placed where it should have been from the beginning. It may be that Mrs. Terry assisted, as did many other people, in raising funds for the plant, but to what extent I have no idea. This information can only be obtained from His Honour the Administrator, as the accounts and records of the Hospital Board were all burnt when a fire destroyed the house of the secretary in about 1935 or 1936.-

NORFOLK - MAINLANDER

(Auck-

land)_