Taihape Hospital at Christmas

Taihape Hospital was opened in May 1911 and by Christmas 1919 the community were making donations for the Christmas period. Donations that year included flowers, fruit, and magazines. Local resident Mrs Dymock even donated a goose! Several members of the community donated funds to purchase presents for the patients – who in 1919 were referred to as inmates.

Donors for Christmas 1919 were Mrs Liddicoat, Master Jim Williams, the Otaihape Club, Mr Begg, the aforementioned Mrs Dymock with the goose, Mrs W. Williams, Mr Milne, Wang Nam, Father Minogue, and Mr Fitzpatrick Meyer.

By 1939, donations to the hospital were common and there was much variety in the goods donated. The Utiku branch of the Rural Women New Zealand (at the time known as the Women’s Division Farmers’ Union or WFDU) were donating the usual flowers and fruit, supplemented by something you would struggle to see near a hospital today – cigarettes. Cascade Brewery’s donation of ale and stout shows us how different a hospital stay was in the 1930s compared to today.

Soldiers spending Christmas in Taihape and Waiouru Military Hospitals were the recipients of community goodwill in 1941. The Red Cross Society raised funds at a community ‘shop day’ to purchase gifts for the injured soldiers convalescing in the local hospitals.

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Decades of community goodwill to patients and staff in Taihape Hospital at Christmas continued in the post-war period. In 1982, convent pupils Dean Robinson, Debra McQueen, Richard Rukuwai, Nicholas Ratima, Kirsten Oliver and Angela Dygas were entertaining hospital patients like Mrs E Martin (pictured) in the lead up to Christmas.

Taihape Museum holds many photographic archives of the local community. All photographs in this article come from the museum’s collection. The information was sourced from the museum and from Papers Past.