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In all countries very great difficulty has been found in obtaining suitable employment both for male and female ex-patients. The experiment at Karere promises to be very successful, but the suggestion thrown out by the Director of the Phipps Institute is worthy of consideration. The laws with regard to the registration of nurses would prevent the employment of any but trained women in New Zealand, still there are many spheres of usefulness for the untrained female patient who has had a lengthened sojourn in a sanatorium: Without usurping the title of nurse she is able to do great good. She has learned wherein lies the main source of danger, and, while playing the humble role of maid in a family where a consumptive lives, she would be able to render great service. As a matter of fact one of our ex-patients is now occupied in this work. WORK FOR THE " CURED." It is with the greatest pleasure 1 have to record that a start has been made in a direction which has often been urged in previous reports. The various sanatoria and annexes for the treatment of persons suffering from consumption are doing excellent work, but the value of the work done in these institutions has in many cases been stultified in that the " cured " patient has had to face the world of work again unaided. The ''cured" consumptive in most instances —that is, the cases which usually pass through the sanatoria —must practice an employment in the open air. The clerk must for ever leave his ledger, the baker his batch, the seamstress her needle, if they are to keep well. Now, what are they to do? The man has no chance in the world of unskilled labour, and for the woman there are few outdoor occupations. Beekeeping, poultry-farming, shepherding, &c, are all suitable, but unless the patient has some capital it is difficult for him to find an opening. As I have pointed out repeatedly, unless we are to lose the money spent in bringing them back to a condition of health, the Municipalities, Hospital Boards, or the Central Government must find them some kind of employment at once suitable to their condition of health, and of a nature which will be profitable not only to the ''cured," but to the provider of the work. This, I think, will be accomplished through the camp, the "Karere"—or Forerunner—of which you have been good enough to approve. On the flat near Waipa has been begun an experiment which I am sure will be as successful as it was longed for. Imagine the fate of the man who has spent, say, nine months in a sanatorium and leaves it full of gratitude and a desire for work. Even the most charitable tight shy of having him near to them. He has spent all his savings, if he had any, in the two or three years' battle for health before he entered the sanatorium, and he leaves the institution usually full of hope, but devoid of money. All indoor work is barred to him; he cannot compete with the strong man in navvying, lumping, or agricultural work. He seeks for light out-door work, but rarely finds it. He must perforce live in the cheapest of boardinghouses, often sleeping in the same room with others; his food is poor. Repeated denials soon quench even the " spes phthisica." Friends may be wishful to help, but they have children and they fear him. An appeal to the Charitable Aid Board brings him enough to keep starvation off, but his descent is steady, and the end easily foreseen. Improper food, bad hygienic conditions, and crushed hope make him an easy prey to colds, and a varying time, never very long, sees him an applicant again for a bed in the hospital or sanatorium. I have indulged in no rhetoric. This is a calm, dispassionate, truthful picture, of which unfortunately we Health officials see too many examples Labour-camps, as they are often termed, have been started in America, England, and the Continent of Europe, and varying success has attended them. Here in New Zealand, however, we have many, factors which are wanting in other countries. The State owns land suitable for treeplanting and it has a department willing to employ men at this work. For men, than treeplanting there could be no more suitable occupation for the "cured " consumptive. The planter is in the open air all day, and he must sleep near his work, which is always outside of the town. He competes with no one, and he is paid only for what he does. He has every inducement to be regular and assiduous, but he can rest when his breath fails him. There is no arriere pensee in the minds of any one that he may contaminate the milk, transmit the disease to the fowls, or render the honey unsafe. "Karere" is situated about a mile from the prison camp at Waipa. The soil is of free, open pumice. There is a good water-supply and through the courtesy of Colonel Hume we have been permitted to connect with the prison-camp telephone. The Under-Secretary for Lands (Mr. Kensington), whose kindly sympathy and help I desire to put on record, has given instructions that all his officers are to help us in every possible way, and has agreed also to pay our people the
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