Leinster Chambers

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni - and as it is afternoon [sign].

May I specifically greet you: the Rev Victoria Matthews, the Bishop of Christchurch; Ian Ford,  president of the St George's Hospital Society; Tony Hunter, Chief Executive Officer; Barbara Fox, Director of Nursing; members of the Board of Directors of St George's Hospital; Distinguished guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank for inviting my wife Susan and I to St George's Hospital today for the opening of Leinster Chambers.
I have been asked to undertake the opening, but before I do, I would like to speak as to the significance of today's event.

I am told that I am the next in a long line of Governors-General to have opened buildings here at the hospital.

In 1964 Sir Bernard Fergusson inaugurated the building of the Surgical Block, and Sir Arthur Porritt opened it five years later.

Sir David Beattie opened the Theatre and X-ray block in 1984, and Dame Catherine Tizard opened the Day Surgery in 1992.

Sir Michael Hardie Boys opened the Milford Chambers consulting rooms in 1996 and was back four years later for the second set of consulting rooms, the Hiatt Chambers, in the year 2000.

It was six years ago, in 2003, that my immediate predecessor, Dame Silvia Cartwright opened the Canon Wilford Wing.

To many in Christchurch, the name Canon Wilford is probably known only as that of a wing in this hospital.

But in preparing for today's ceremony, I was having a look at the St George's Hospital website and of course I came across Canon John Russell Wilford as the hospital's founder. I think it would be fair to say that there would have been no St George's if John Wilford had never come to Canterbury in 1904 and had he not worked so assiduously in the next 29 years.

University of Canterbury Masters student, Josephine Welch, in her thesis about Canon Wilford, portrays him as not only a clergyman with a deep faith, but as a man with a great ability at fundraising.

‘Faith' and ‘fundraising ability' are, I think it is fair to say, two essential ingredients for those who take on the building of charitable institutions.

And Canon Wilford certainly made St George's his mission after arriving in New Zealand from England in 1904 with his wife Dorothy and his toddler son James.

At Cambridge he had received academic prizes - and his wife had grown up in Harley St. So they found their life somewhat ‘primitive', as Wilford himself put it, when he became vicar at Waikari.

However, he found in his new surroundings the inspiration for his later work, including the hospital. He later wrote: "It was certainly not for nothing that I was sent to the backblocks where among the silences of the great spaces, I heard the voices of the past."

‘The voices' were those of the Canterbury Pilgrims who had arrived on the first four ships half a century previously.

He decided to finish off some of the projects that the Canterbury Association had planned but which had not come to fruition.

He wrote of his decision to found the hospital. "Forces I could not resist led me on. A power within me seemed to possess me: and I believed it to be - no, I was sure it was - the spirit of the Canterbury Pilgrims: I was a mere automaton."

In spite of this rather high-flown language, he was a very down-to-earth man. During the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, he had worked in the wards of the public hospital, doing nursing as well as chaplaincy work while half of the nursing staff were ill.

He brought the same practicality and enthusiasm to bear on fundraising, holding open days and bazaars and getting others to support the project.  
 
After the hospital opened in 1928, Canon Wilford stayed in Christchurch for only five more years before returning to England.

In her thesis, Josephine says she decided to find out more about Canon Wilford after reading his books, Southern Cross and Evening Star and Faith Moves Mountains.   She says that she was struck by "the faith and the enthusiasm of the man" which she found to be inspiring

I am sure that Canon Wilford would have been immensely gratified by the way the hospital has continually expanded and updated to meet the needs of the Christchurch community.

Today St George's is one of the largest private hospitals in New Zealand, and one of the most modern in terms of equipment and technology.

I understand that the new Leinster Chambers are part of the hospital's aim to develop a ‘one-stop-shop' health care facility housing a range of specialists and services, which has obvious benefits, particularly for patients.

I note that if you continue in the tradition of asking Governors General to open your buildings, I will be back again in the near future!  I understand the next stage in the hospital's redevelopment is the provision of the only private cancer care centre in the South Island and that this is already under construction and due to be completed around the end of the year.

On that note of congratulation and work in progress, I would like to officially declare the new consulting room building, Leinster Chambers, open.  And I would like to close in New Zealand's first language, Māori, by offering greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.