War on cancer goes nuclear
The Joint Council of the Red Cross Society and the Order of St John is lending its valuable support to the appeal for £5000 to equip the Dunedin Hospital with everything that is needed to cope with the increasing number of cancer cases that are seeking treatment, and it is hoped that this sum will be subscribed by a sympathetic and generous public by the time the newly-appointed radiologist, Dr Colin Anderson, arrives in Dunedin some three months hence. The Government subsidy on this amount would raise the total to £10,000, which, after a careful consideration of the position, is estimated to be sufficient for the installation of a radium emanation and a deep X-ray therapy outfit, so as to provide adequate treatment, in the most efficient manner, for all cancer cases referred to the department in Otago and Southland and possibly other districts as well.
A tale of three towns
A dying town is an even sadder sight than one that is dead, unless there pulses within it, however faintly, a life that is earnest of a new vitality and re-birth. Within the past few days I have seen two dying towns — places that once moved with the impetus of thousands of human beings within their walls or in the vicinity, and sparkled with the transitory and rather hectic prosperity of gold in abundance. For one, Macraes Flat, hope certainly does not beat high, but there is just a chance that a mining revival in a mild form will prolong the drowsy life that it now leads. Even its few inhabitants agree that its crowding and shouting have died, but with a faith in the future inherited from the past, they think, or pretend to think (rather pathetically), that something will yet turn up. Then there is Naseby — a borough that not so many years ago sheltered 2000 miners, and has now a population of 250, with seven or eight hydraulic claims employing about 25 men. Once upon a time Naseby was the place in Otago Central to which all roads led. Growing rapidly, with a "get there" appearance, is Ranfurly. It offers no appeal to the aesthetically inclined, but it will certainly become, even if it is not that now, the mainspring of the Maniototo. One would not be surprised to see it yet the biggest place in the Central — by ‘Bowyang’
Ignorance is bliss
The march of science is not always a thing to boast of. How much are we the better for poison gas and the aeroplane? Any day, if war were upon us, these two in conspiracy might blot out London and suffocate its millions high and low. March on science, — and we are expected to he thankful! In preference I say "Thanks be!" for any freakish wandering of science into blind alleys and bypaths that lead nowhere. — by ‘Civis’ — ODT, 6.10.1923
Compiled by Peter Dowden
