A meeting of subscribers to the Victoria Nursing Institute which is to be erected as a lasting and tangible memorial of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Diamond Tubilee was held at the Municipal Hall on Thursday night, the object being to consider an important resolution put forward by the Committee. Mr. Wade Gard'ner presided and amongst those present were Mr. W. D. Little, Me. W. V. Drummond, Mr. F. Anderson, Mr. J. Prentice, Mr. and Mis. C. Thorne, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Muirhead, Mr. J. P. Donovan, Mr. T. W. Kingsmill, Rev. 'T. Richard, Rev. F. Box, Rev. G. "H. and Mrs. Bondfield, Mr. J. Johnson, Mr. W. Moule, Mr, C.J Dudgeon, Mr. R. M. Campbell, Mr. E. A! Hewett, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. G. J. Morrison, Mr. J. Buchanan, and Dr. Cox.
The Chairman in his opening addr—At the last meeting of subscribers held on the 26th of February last year the Committee gave you an account of the work which they had done up to that date, and after a discussion had taken ph "That the Committee be authorised to col lect the subscriptions and offer the same to the Municipal Council for the erection of a building to be called the Victori Nursing Institute, to contain a cer portion of free beds." The subscriptions then promised amounted to Tls. 18,200, In accordance with this instruction" the Committee put themselves in communi tion with the Mamicipal Council, but found that the; isposed to undertak the cree Nursing Home, provision for some free be return for a payment of Tls. 18,000. 'They informed us, however, that if our Committee would bri elution before the Ratepayers' Meeting asking for a site, they would be prepared to accept such a resoltttion if it were approved by the Rate Accordit tion was proposed by me Mr. F. Anderson: "TI subscribers to the Jubilee Memorial the gilt of" Nursing Home to be erected on Municipal _property and to be called the Victoria Nursing Institute, on condition that some free beds will he provided therein, when patients are admitted." The resolution was put to the meeting amd carried without a dissentient. voice.
Our position then was that we had to undertake the erection of the building on a ris granted by the to the Comxd been able to collect were 4 te, amounting they did to Tls. 17,000, we did our best to raise more funds and have been so far successful that we have cash in hand to the extent of Ti 00. Whilst we were engaged in rising additional subscriptions we applied to the Municipal Council for ud were informed that the most suitable one at their disposal was that on the old Rite Range Road; it was, however, too small for a ug Homeand other buildings which it is the intention of the Council to erect there, consequently the Council decided to buy' the adjoining property, and reserve part of it for the Nursing Home. 'The purchase of this site involved considerable delay, but it was finally concluded last summer. After the title deeds had been obtained, there was an action raised in the Court' of Consuls against the Council in which certain Chinese claimed to be the rightful owners of the land adjoining the road, and until that action was decided, it was impossible for us to make any progress with the building of the Home. As you are aware the Court of Consuls recently gave a decision in favour of the Council, and we are now therefore free to begin operations as soon as we like. We applied to Mr. Mayne and asked him to give us his assistance in the preparations of estimates and plans. Mr. Mayne not only agreed to dv s, bu was kind enough to offer to prepare plans, and estimates, and also to supervise the erection of the entire building free of all cos to the subscribers; this will entail a great deal of extra trouble and labour to. him, and am sure the subscribers will feel that they are under a deep obligation to Mr. Mayne for his kindness and public spirit. The estimates and plans of the building are now before you. The one which the Committee reevinmend and which is approved of by Dr. Stanley contains administrative offices, rooms for LO nui and probationers ward for eight pat B0"x24', three round floor, the building t have a total frontage of L2L fect; the build-Quding des ighting, and wat estimated such a building would be one which would enable all clauses of residents to receive the Lenefits of the services of trained sand it woald be sulliciently large the training of nurses to be undertaken Tveally. which, nu Know, is one of theaimsof the Memorial, To complish this, and to have some pro-sion for contingencies, it is absolutely necessary that, wi more: should have money, and the Committee have come to the conclusion that, British residents: hay shown. thei pathy with the scheme the substantial sua ut Ts. tio ins now arrived when we al te our fellow residents of other nationalities who will participate equably in the benefits to ye derived from the Institute, and ask them for their support. We wer to find that when it was known tut our funds were insutlicient a number of ladies came forward and offered to assist us by organising a Buaar to be held in the autumn. We feel t jen the indies undertake anything certain command the sympathy and support of the community, and that they will be successful in raisin's funds which will enable us to carry out the scheme which is within measurable distance of being ised, The resolution before the mec= ing is—but before putting it to the meeting T shall be glad to hear what the subscribers have to siy—That the Committee are authorised to accept contributions from donors of all nationalities, and also that, they are reuosted to convey the thanks of the subscribers to the ladies in aid of the Building Fund.
Mr. F. Anderson svid—I have much pleasure in rising to second the res-lution proposed by Mr. Wade Gard'ner and in doing so it may be of interest to the meeting to have some details of the working of the Nursing Home under the present system, In 1897 the Nurses attended 47 cases, in 1893, notwithstanding that the Council mised the fees by about 7) per cent, there were 52 cases; ten applications were refused during 1893, no nurses being lable, and Iam informed that this by no means represents the number of sick who would have had nurses had the staff been larger, but who, knowing that the nurses were all engaged, did not. apply ab the Home. The nationalities of the cases nursed were as follows: British 39, German 6, Americin 3, French 1, Dutch 1, Austrian 1, Japanese 1—speaking, three-quarters British, onz-quarter other nationalities. There were three applications for nurses from outports, allot which had to be refused, as there were none available. From this it is clear that there is employment for, at least, three and probably four nurses in outdoor work alone; if the training of nurses is to be undertaken, and this has all along been one
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