The Health Work in Australia

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 20, 1906

The Health Work in Australia

In his opening address before the Australasian Union Conference, held September 13-23, the president, Elder O. A. Olsen, stated: “The sanitarium at Wahroonga, as well as the smaller health institutions at Christchurch, New Zealand, and Adelaide, and the vegetarian café in Sydney, are all enjoying a steadily increasing patronage and consequent prosperity; and through these agencies, many precious souls are receiving great spiritual as well as physical blessings.”

Dr. D. H. Kress, medical secretary of the Australasian Union Conference, in his report at a recent meeting of that conference, among other encouraging items, gave the following: “Three years have passed since we presented a report of the medical work before this representative body. At that time our sanitarium had been in operation but a short time, and our financial report was not very promising. The work at the sanitarium was taken up in fear and trembling. From a human point of view, it seemed that it could be nothing but a financial failure. We are thankful to report that in spite of our unbelief, God has blessed our institution and its work beyond all our expectations.

“The sanitarium, through the past two years especially, has had a steady patronage. There has also been a steady increase in the number of patients. The last year there was an increase over the preceding year, and this year there has been quite an increase over last year. All this indicates healthy growth.

“We have had during the present year an average of forty-nine patients monthly. Although we have not urged our doctrines upon them, about thirty have thus far begun to keep the Sabbath as the result of our sanitarium work. We have at present connected with the sanitarium more than forty workers. Over thirty of these have satisfactorily completed their two years of study. Of this number, none are lost to the work. Some are engaged in conference work; others have been called to mission fields. What we need above everything else is promising men and women who are mature, and who possess some refinement and education, to take a course of instruction with a view to fitting themselves for sanitarium work. Calls are also coming from many places for medical missionary workers, most of which we are at present unable to fill.”