Vernon Memorial

Hospital in Western Division "Mission in the Mud" asks for Support for this Worthy Cause

ALTHOUGH the Dr. Vernon memorial fund which was started in Samarai, Papua, some months ago will be used to erect a stone memorial in Samarai, the Bamu River Mission which is run by Eva and Harrie Standen at Maipani, Daru, Western District of Papua, is going ahead with a memorial hospital which will have special anti-TB interests.

The hospital will be known as “The Doctor Vernon Memorial” as a token of sincere respect to the late Dr. G. H.

Vernon of Kokoda fame and so well known to “boys” .of Thursday Island and in Daru, Papua.

Mrs. Standen is concerned at the in creased rate of Tuberculosis on the western rivers. While in Moresby, after interested discussions with, and advice from the late Dr. Vernon, and Adminis trative departments concerned, she re turned to the Bamu and has already launched this special work with a tem pory hospital and four trainees on Mai pani Island. Immediately transport is available (the Standens like everyone else are looking for a boat), the Memorial Hospital will be rebuilt in a central posi tion further up the Bamu.

The hospital will also deal with all general cases of native diseases and train orderlies, male and female, to later work as Medical orderlies in their own villages.

No such practical attempt has 6ver been made in the Bamu districts, and the scheme deserves wholehearted co-op eration and practical interests, specially from those who know the Bamu.

The Standens’ splendid work in the Bamu is widely known and admired and reports of Government officers and medi cal departments pay tribute to it.

The respect for Mrs. Standen held by the Bamu natives was seen in the tumultuous welcoming feasts and dances given in her honour on her return to the river last year.

Mrs. Standen with unbounded energy and great inspiration has a way of getting things done. She says that if funds are not forthcoming for the firm estab lishment of the memorial hospital, then she will set to work to earn them.

Mr. Standen who captained the RAAF Search Party Ship round the New Guinea coast, is now in Sydney in the process of being demobilised; he expects to be back in Papua shortly and will go to work on the building of the hospital and a new station. He expects to be accompanied by a new agriculturalist worker, and the Mission is hoping also for another trained nurse in the near future. In the mean time Mrs. Standen carries on alone and says “no time for worry or lonliness, no day is ever long enough for the thousand calls on the worker.”

Folk desiring to contribute to the Doctor Vernon Memorial Fund, for the Bamu Hospital should contact, Mrs. Eva Standen, Bamu River, Daru.

Papua.

Cheques should be made payable to “Dr. Vernon Memorial Hospital Bamu River.”

I The following students from Fiji ob tained passes in the New Zealand Uni versity Entrance Examination in 1946: Maxwell Edward Bish; Raymond N.

McNally; Rusiate Nayacakalou; Desmond Singh; Charles Walker; George Pringle Waring.