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Chapter II.
My Predecessor and her Work.

Mrs. Grace Neill was a woman of high birth and education. She was a Scots woman of the clan Campbell, closely connected with the Duke of Argyll; she trained as a nurse under St. John's Home, King's College and Charing Cross, and had been matron of a hospital at Home, the Pendlebury Hospital for Children.

She married a doctor, and came out to Queensland with him in 1886. She had one son—her people had long before given her up when she wished to lead an independent life, so, on her husband's death, she was thrown on her own resources, and maintained herself and her boy by literary work. The then Governor of Queensland was a friend to her, and through him she was given a commission of enquiry into some charitable work. She then met and worked with Mr. Lukin, who came to New Zealand as Editor of the Evening Post in Wellington, and it was through him she came to New Zealand, and was appointed Inspector of Factories in 1893.

Her outstanding ability in public work caused the late Dr. Macgregor, Inspector-General of Hospitals and Charitable Aid, to get her appointed to be his assistant, and help him in the control of hospitals; this was in 1895. This gave her her opportunity—as a nurse of experience and a woman of vision. At that time the hospitals of New Zealand were small, and not too well organised, and the training of nurses was in its infancy. Mrs. Neill had much page 21 to contend against, but she was determined to improve matters. She also had to enquire into charitable aid, which was under the hospital boards, and made many valuable reports and suggestions. So much was her work in this direction appreciated that she was borrowed from the New Zealand Government to conduct similar investigation into work in New South Wales. What resulted from these investigations I do not know; probably her reports are somewhere buried among the old archives of the Commonwealth !

Some years after Mrs. Neill's appointment as Inspector of Hospitals, she was given leave to visit the Old Country, and see her family, with whom, by this time she was reconciled—she had been invited by the Royal British Nurses' Association to form a branch of the Association in New Zealand, but after looking into the matter, felt that New Zealand nurses would not gain much by joining this association. She met Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, who at that time was fighting for State registration of nurses, and who was organising the meeting at which the International Council of Nurses had its birth. Mrs. Neill was present at that meeting, and was, therefore, a founder of the organisation which is now so great an influence in the world, having membership of many countries, and many thousands of nurses.

On Mrs. Neill's return to New Zealand, she set to work to obtain State registration for nurses, and with the approval of her chief, Dr. Macgregor, drafted the Bill, which was passed by Parliament as The Nurses' Registration Act, 1901, and under which nurses were trained, examined and registered, until an amended Act was passed in 1925.

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This was the first straight-out Nurses' Registration Act passed in the world.

In South Africa, a Medical Act had made provision for the registration of nurses a year previously, but it was not a true nurses' Act.

It was not possible to obtain quite all Mrs. Neill desired by the Bill, which was amended, not altogether to its betterment, by the House, but at least it set a standard which improved the status of nurses and prescribed a training under regulation, and a uniform examination.

The next important work undertaken by Mrs. Neill was a Bill for the registration of midwives. This was passed in 1904, and provided for hospitals in which mid-wives could be trained. Hitherto, nurses wishing to become midwives had to go either to Australia or Home to England. Miss Wyatt, afterwards the first Matron of St. Helens, had complained to Mrs. Neill of this expensive course, and suggested that training schools should be started. Mrs. Neill thereupon pointed out to the Prime Minister, the late Mr. Seddon, that, as an Act had been passed restricting the work of midwifery after a concession period, to women who were qualified by training and examination to undertake it, it would be necessary to provide the training. Also that the women of the poorer classes needed some proper provision for their confinements.

Mr. Seddon quickly saw her points and gave her instructions to establish, as quickly as possible, a maternity hospital to try out the scheme. He said: “Get to work and have a place ready in a fortnight!” This she did, and in 1905, the first St. Helens Hospital was opened in Wellington and the second in Dunedin, the third in Auckland, in 1906, and the fourth was being prepared in Christchurch at the time of her resignation.

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I am writing all this to show the kind of woman my predecessor was, and how it would have taken a super-woman to succeed her and work up to her standard; super-women not being found every day, an ordinary one had to do her best. It must be recorded also that during the Great War, when many of our experienced nurses were away on service, Mrs. Neill, although nearly 70 years of age, offered her services to the Wellington Hospital Board, and acted as sister-in-charge of the children's ward. Later on she was elected a member of the Board, when her experience was of great value.

Just here I might record the following tribute to Mrs. Neill.

The Diploma of the British College of Nurses is one of honour, and is due to the munificence of an anonymous donor, who gave £100,000 to be expended in an endowment fund.

The watchwords adopted by the college are: Knowledge, Science, Charity and Honour.

The diploma, which bears the seal of the College and the head of the first president, Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, is surrounded by a Scroll of Honour, on which are inscribed the names of many women who have rendered outstanding service to nursing, and nurses in the Mother Country, and in overseas dominions.

In four panels are inscribed the names of Florence Nightingale, Ethel Fenwick, Rebecca Strong, and Margaret Huxley, while on the ribbon connecting them together, with names such as Agnes Jones, Elizabeth Fry, is that of our own Mrs. Grace Neill.

It is gratifying to us that her name should be thus recognised and honoured among the great nurses of Britain.

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In bringing before Parliament the reasons for the Registration Bill the arguments used by Mrs. Neill were very impressive. She said that “in New Zealand we have an exceptionally fine and well-trained body of women as hospital nurses. In the large training schools they work hard for three years, learning the anatomy and physiology necessary to an intelligent performance of their duties, practical nursing, both medical and surgical, sick cookery and household economy; and above all, discipline, obedience and ethics of nursing. When these nurses leave their training schools and take up private nursing they are confronted by a yearly increasing number of women with little or no training, who adopt their uniform and title. For the protection of the public and to give a professional standing to the women of a noble profession, hospital trained nurses should be registered.

Then again, at any time military nurses may be required for field service. At such a time the authorities are besieged by importunate amateurs. In serious gun-shot wounds or cases of enteric, a thorough training in the nurse is of vital importance.

The evil of women of low repute adopting a nursing uniform and posing as nurses in private families with disastrous results is keenly felt, not only in New Zealand, but in Australia, Great Britain and America. Just now a vigorous effort is being made in the colonies for State registration of hospital trained nurses. It only remains for New Zealand to lead the way in this reference, as she has done in many others.”

In introducing the new measure, provision was made that during twelve months for all nurses whose training was completed before the Act came into force, could still become registered without examination. There was, of course, page 25 much opposition shown by partially trained women and experienced women who had not undergone any regular training, because they were debarred from the privilege enjoyed by the registered nurses, and the feeling was so strong that a short Bill of four clauses was drawn up, but after discussion was allowed to drop. Replying to a criticism of State registration in a nursing journal which said State registration provided no journal, no lectures, no sick fund, but left nurses to their own devices, Mrs. Neill said:

“Most assuredly State registration has no patronage, benevolence or spoon-feeding about it. Each individual nurse has to show a State appointed, impartial authority that her training has been efficient and thorough, and she pays her fee for a certificate to that effect. It is a policy of self-reliance, not of humble dependance on crumbs from the table of patronage.”

The question of reciprocity with other countries which later obtained State registration has been one of difficulty owing to the many variations in Acts and Regulations. In an appendix will be given the countries with which New Zealand has arranged reciprocity.

A chapter later in this volume gives some details of our reciprocity with Great Britain, New Zealand being the first of the colonies to realise this for her nurses.