Other medical 'family affairs' have included Robert Leslie Grosvenor Barclay, for many years a general practitioner in Waitara, and who also attended patients in the New Plymouth Hospital. On his death he was succeeded by his son, Robert Donald Barclay, in practice in New Plymouth. In 1977 he left for a 'working holiday' in Australia, where he spent 18 months as a flying doctor before returning to his practice. To bring nine and a half thousand babies into the world is quite a feat-especially if it is done by a man. Dr Tom Jagusch was such a man. As the city's leading obstetrician and gynaecologist for more than 40 years he was responsible for helping 300 Taranaki mothers each year. He started private practice as a GP in the town in 1935. After war service he graduated in his discipline in Melbourne and on his return to the town he became a specialist, working as both in private practice and in the public hospitals. On his retirement in 1975 following two coronaries which were a result of his tension-filled life (he died two years later) he recalled some of the advances in midwifery during his career. In the early days, most births occurred at home, and only in special cases were mothers sent to hospital. There were a few small maternity hospitals run by midwives with doctors in attendance ... In 1979 there were 49 registered medical practitioners in New Plymouth, including two husband-and-wife teams. The financial position of New Plymouth medical specialists, as elsewhere, would have been quite unrewarding were they forced to rely solely on their fees from Base Hospital Work. In order to supplement their income, and to meet the needs of patients who wanted treatment from surgeons and doctors of the own choice, more privacy and longer visiting hours, private hospitals were established. One of the earliest of these was Noradene, formed in 1920 by two World War One nurses, Mrs Adams and Miss E. M. Whitcombe (nee Livesay), who bought the family home of W. V. Morey, a draper who had founded his business in Devon Street in 1872. The two nurses converted the large house in Vivian Street into a private surgical hospital, where for many years patients who could afford it received treatment. Later, it became a convalescent hospital and in 1951, two registered nurses, Mrs G. A. Adamson and Miss N. E. McClurg, together with Mr Adamson, formed a partnership to buy the property which they reconverted into a private hospital, and later a geriatric establishment of 13 beds. In 1970 the two nurses decided that they could no longer carry on and the property was sold and demolished. The lona Private Hospital, established by 14 New Plymouth doctors in 1947, had its early problems. Gordon Rich was chairman of directors and Miss N. I. Harrison its first' manager and matron.' The first annual report showed a loss of $1 00, and while there was a measure of profit in later years, and money was lent by the State for capital development, it was never a source of exorbitant profit for the doctors, as some critics suggested. In 1958, when the Government relieved all patients in public hospitals of any fees, this almost resulted in the closure of Iona as it did, later, of Noradine. But rona survived, because there was a need, both for specialists and patients, and it was pointed out at the time that without at least one private hospital specialists could not afford to stay in the city. In 1978 the affairs of rona were reorganised with the formation of the Iona Trust. Emphasis in this chapter has been placed on doctors, but there have been literally thousands of people who have given their own type of service to medicine in the town-matrons, nurses, ambulance drivers, laundrymen, gardeners, and, of course, administrators.-and it would be impossible in this work to refer to the all. Matrons of the New Plymouth Hospital included Miss A. Blackley (later Mrs Bayly), Miss Fernandez, Miss E. Browne, Mrs B. A. Campbell, Miss N. M. Knight, Miss I. M. Henderson and Miss M. E. McDowell. The first Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act of 1885 set the pattern for hospital administration by authorising the appointment of boards with power to raise finance from rates, helped by an equal subsidy from the Government. Chairman of the first Taranaki Hospital and Charitable Aid Board was H. R. Richmond. A year later he resigned following a dispute between Matron Blackley and a ladies' committee, one ofwhose members was Richmond's wife, and his place was taken by James Bellringer, who was chairman from 1886 to 1900, Gustave Tisch was chairman from 1902-1907; Bellringer's son, F. C. J. Bellringer, 1907-1917; Murdoch Fraser, 1917-1928; the Rev. G. B. Gosnell (temporary), C. H. Burgess, Mr Gosnell again, and S. Vickers, 1930-1932. In 1933, P. E. (Percy) Stainton was elected chairman, a position he held with outstanding distinction for 32 years. The Stainton Block of the hospital is his memorial. Henry (later Sir Henry) Blyde took his place, after 34 years' service as a board member.
The hospital board has always taken its responsibilities towards the care of the aged seriously. Social security in New Zealand may be regarded as having originated with the passing of the Old Age Pension Act of 1898. This provided, out of general taxation, small monthly payments for deserving aged and poor (the pension was $36 a year to applicants who could pass stringent tests, including public inquiry). Up until this time New Plymouth's aged citizens had been accommodated in various old buildings, including the Gables and a dilapidated building near the Barrett Street Hospital. In 1901 the old premises were destroyed by the fire brigade and a new home for the aged was built on the site at a cost of $6665. It compromised 59 rooms and could accommodate 30 males and ten females. Extracts from the 'Weekly Ration Book' of the home from 1905 to 1910 (in possession of the hospital board) present an interesting and rather sad commentary on conditions. There was a staff of four and inmates averaged 30, four of whom were female. Their rations included essentials such as bread, meat, tea, sugar and milk, and a weekly handout of tobacco to those who used it, most of whom were males. The weekly records name new inmates, committals to lunatic asylums, deaths (described in some cases in gruesome detail) and 'punishment', often written at great length, for offences, usually committed by males. These were invariably 'absenting themselves from the institution', returning home 'the worse of liquor', and abusive language to the manager of the home (until 1908, Mr A. Farrar, whose place was then taken by his wife, Mrs Farrar). A typical case was that of 'inmate Rogers' who was "brought before the chairman (F. C. J. Bellringer) and the secretary. After hearing the evidence (three pages in the record) Farrar records: 'The chairman then told Rogers that his pension allowance would be stopped for two months-ten shillings for bringing liquor into the home and ten shillings for using disgusting language, and your leave stopped from going to town for one month. Rogers replied, "I will give up drink until Xmas" June 19, 1908.'
Two years later, to make way for a new hospital, the old people's home was removed to its present site in upper Westown on land bought from James Sole at $160 an acre. The contract was awarded to Boon Bros, whose tender was $2592. In 1918, for the first time, the institution was favoured with a name-'Rangiatea' ('free from care'), which title remained until it was replaced in 1944 by 'Rangimarie' (peaceful) in order to avoid confusion with the proposed Methodist Church's Maori girls' hostel at Spotswood. In 1979 there were 40 inmates cared for by a staff of 29, and the total annual cost of administering 'Rangimarie.' was $231,000.
The School Medical Service was inaugurated in 1912, and in 1921 its control was passed from the Education Department to the Health Department. Each of the four main centres had its own officers, two of whom became well-known in Taranaki: Dr Ada Paterson, who became Director of School Hygiene in 1923, and Dr Elizabeth Gunn, who occupied the same high post in 1937. Dr Gunn's visits to New Plymouth are still vividly remembered for her brusque, no-nonsense manner. She was later awarded the OBE for services to the health camp movement. It was not until 1927 that Taranaki had its own full-time school medical officer, Dr R. J. R. Mecredy. In 1939, when a district health office was opened in New Plymouth, the school medical work was undertaken by the medical officer of health. Over the years, the 'school nurses', as public health nurses were known, have given valuable service to New Plymouth schools.
New Plymouth was one of the first areas in the country to have school dental nurses. In 1919 a chief dental officer was appointed to the medical staff of the Education Department in Wellington. Within a few months it was evident that the training and supervision of adequate staff to provide the sort of service envisaged would be too slow a process, and the responsibility for dental work in schools was transferred to the Health Department which, in 1920, set up a division of dental hygiene, later to become the division of dental health. Following a publicity and recruitment campaign, the first group of 35 student dental nurses started their training in April 1921. In April, 1923, 29 graduated as fully qualified dental nurses, and from this first class two were posted to New Plymouth. With none of the advantages of later sophisticated equipment and techniques, they had to cope with unhappy and pain-racked children whose mouths were a 'mess of rampant and largely untreated dental disease'. 8 The amount of untreated dental disease in 1925 was enormous: for every 100 fillings, 75 teeth required extraction. The situation improved so that in 1933 the ratio of extractions to fillings had fallen to 17.4 and in 1970 to 2.7. In 1978 there were 45 dental clinics established in Taranaki (17 in the New Plymouth district) serviced by a similar number of dental nurses under the charge of the principal dental officer, Malcolm E. Cunninghame, who was appointed in 1971.
So much for keeping New Plymouth people alive. When the inevitable happens, provisions for the disposal of bodies have been carefully observed. In the first years of settlement all arrangements were the responsibility of the various religious denominations. Thus cemeteries were established in ground surrounding or near the various churches.
The first European burial place in New Plymouth was at Ngamotu, the Wahitapu, established by the Wesleyan missionaries, where Dicky Barrett's headstone still stands among those of his contemporaries, European and Maori. Other burial places were on and near Marsland Hill (still marked by the memorial to Charles Armitage Brown); St Mary's (Anglican); Congregational, and Primitive Methodists (later moved to the Devon Street-Mt Edgcumbe Street corner); Methodists (Gover-Devon Streets corner), and in upper Westown (Hurdon). The Roman Catholic cemetery was on the site of the present bowling green in Courtenay Street. Te Henui Cemetery was established in 1861. It was a small area which in the subsequent 118 years has been periodically extended until in 1980 it covered more than 10ha. Headstones vary from simple plaques to elaborate marble and granite shrines, and that part which is administered by the city council is neat and tidy, contrasting with the neglected appearance of the area where plots .have been bought in perpetuity- their care is the owner' responsibility. The first burial at Te Henui, according to a tattered cloth record book in possession of the council was that of a 10-year-old child, lona S. Smith 'protestant' ,on October 9,1861, but the exact spot of her interment is not known. The second burial was that of a publican, C. W. Foote, on April 2, 1862, aged 42, and his headstone is still clearly visible. By 1979 there were 16,846 graves in Te Henui and the neighbouring Awanui Cemetery. When Te Henui was established it became necessary to close most other cemeteries, and over the years, as ground was needed for other purposes, exhumations were carried out and the remains transported to Te Henui. In charge of this gruesome task was Follett Carrington, and shortly before his death in 1926 he recalled some of the difficulties he encountered. The Roman Catholic and Methodist cemeteries took several years to transfer the remains, and some had not been recovered by the time the land was required for its new purpose. R. Quickfall was the first sexton and in 1902 his place had been taken by J. Gamblin. It was (and still is) the sexton's job to dig and cover the grave, for which the charge was ten shillings ($1). Today it is $70. In the 'remarks' column of the records are occasional brief references to the cause of death. On February, 1869, under the heading 'White Cliffs Massacre', the names of the Rev. John Whiteley and eight others were recorded as being 'interred in Church of England ground'. There were many British soldiers, volunteers and militiamen's funerals; several suicides, drownings and still-born babies; Edward L. Jones was 'killed by X-Press Train Gover Street Crossing' in 1902, and in 1903 Percy George 'Met his Death by a Bicycle Accident.' Early funerals were undertaken by friends of the deceased's family or by the sexton, but by the 1870s there appeared in the appropriate column the name E. Clow, who carried on the business of undertaker until the 1890s when F. Brooker shared the honours with Clow, Pickett, Bullot, Heldt and Cochrane. Brooker was a cabinet-maker and builder and continued in business until early this century when he sold his business to Short Brothers, stonemasons, who were responsible for most of the headstones in Te Henui for many years. The firm of Boon Bros was a prominent undertaker for many years, as was William Abraham, whose firm is one of the two remaining funeral directors. The other is R. C. Vosper and Son. The Taranaki crematorium, built on Junction Road in 1961 at acost of $96,000, was dedicated on May 15, 1961, but the first cremation occurred three days earlier. By 1979 more than 5000 cremations had been undertaken,