Vernon Memorial

THE Samarai Committee, headed by Mr. H. Bitmead, who have collected over £4O towards a Memorial to the late Dr. G. H. Vernon, have decided that the Memorial shall take the form of a stone monument to be erected in Samarai.

There had been some discussion con cerning the form the Memorial should take. Mrs. Eva Standen, who conducts the well-known “Mission in the Mud.” in the Western district of Papua had urged that the Memorial should take the form of a hospital, where native nurses could be trained. She made the point that all who knew Doctor Vernon would ac cept the fact that he would have prefer red the hospital type of Memorial be

cause so much of his life had been given to native welfare work.

The Samarai decision to keep the or iginal plan probably was influenced by the fact that the Australian Government is now making apparently unlimited funds available to the Papua-New Guinea Ad ministration for hospital and other welfare activities on behalf of the natives.

Mrs. Standen should have little dif ficulty in getting all the monetary assist ance she needs from official sources in the prosecution of her splendid work among the primitive natives of the West ern River Deltas.

Contributions

Already acknowledged £45 2 0 T. & D. Bollinger, Deepwater, NSW 2 2 0 £47 4 0