BOPDHB History Whakatāne Hospital History Book | Page 29

In 1919, Nurse North indicated to the Board41 that, through sickness she ‘had to go away for a change’
and suggested ‘that the Hospital would probably be closed down and suggested an alternative that
the Board run the Hospital in her absence.’ In response, in order to keep the Hospital open, the Board
appointed Nurse Watt as the temporary Matron.
In 1927 Nurse North by this time the local District Nurse, became seriously ill and was a patient at
Auckland Hospital for some time. Following her recovery she completed a post-graduate course in
Wellington with the aid of a Government scholarship, (one of only three awarded at the time.) Following
the completion of her course, she was appointed Nurse Inspector for the Gisborne-East Cape Health
District which included the back country district from Waikaremoana to Rotorua and the coastal
settlements at Hicks Bay and Cape Runaway. In 1936 Miss North was asked to go to Samoa as acting
Matron of the Hospital in Apia, and then returned once more to the East Coast where she continued to
inspect all the maternity hospitals and provide half-yearly examinations for the nurses.
Nurse North retired in 1945, but in 1965 she delivered a most informative and stimulating address to
the Whakatāne & District Historical Society42 in which she recalled her experiences as a Mission Nurse
in the Whakatāne District. This is reproduced in its entirety as follows:

Reminiscences of a Mission Nurse
While training at Napier Hospital during 1908 - 1912 I used to visit Bishopscourt
frequently as I had known the Bishop and Mrs Averill very well in Christchurch.
In the course of one of these visits the Bishop, who had just returned from
Whakatane, remarked that he was quite worried about the very high death rate
amongst the Maoris here, especially amongs