Appeal for patients and prisoners

If the name of the Patients’ and Prisoners’ Aid Society is not precisely a household word in the community it is not for any lack of merit associated with it. Probably no organisation in the community has a greater experience of the sad and the seamy side of existence, nor does nobler work with less obtrusiveness. Its methods in pursuance of its humanitarian crusade might be considered an excellent illustration of the biblical injunction: ‘‘Let not thy left hand know what the right hand doeth.”

The record of what the society accomplishes tells nothing of that unwritten record of the suffering, the hardships, and the moral relapses which it prevents. So rarely does the society court publicity, the fact that it is doing so just now itself makes the occasion remarkable. The circumstance that an organisation which exists to give help is in itself in need of a helping hand is due, as was explained at the recent annual meeting, to the establishment at Warrington of the James Powell Rest Home, an institution which permits of a particularly beneficial extension of its work. In bringing into being this institution of a type, so much needed, the society has incurred financial obligations beyond the limits of its somewhat slender purse. Therefore it is now appealing to the community for support. We feel sure that the confidence with which it asks the public of Dunedin and Otago to subscribe a sum of £1500 towards a cause of distinct merit will be justified

in the response.