PUBLICANS AND DOCTORS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1326, 27 August 1886, Page 3

PUBLICANS AND DOCTORS.

The following letter from a “ medical man" appears in a Dunedin contemporary : A publican by the name of Mr Fagan at the last meeting of the Hospital Hoard “ referred to the system of patients coming into the hospital after a dooter had first extracted from them as much money as they had got," and Mr Green proposed a lemedywhich the chalrmansaid “ Tronld stop it ” Now, Sir, will you allow me, as a medical man, to suggest to thefboard the desirability c£ extending the enquiry they make of each poor patient in the following directions : What amount of money he has paid to the publicans to gst the drink which in the msj irity of cases has made him both poor and ill I The names c-f the publicans he has chiefly patronised ? In every case how much money he has paid to publicans for drint duriag the two years preceding his application for admission ? What has been the cost to the public of those whose ailments are directly or indirectly clearly tractable to the consumption of alcoholic hquort.' I think the board in attempting ti stop a practice which one member or so of the profession is reputed to indulge in have nnwhtingly cast a slnr on a body of men who, nr r ■ than any other profession, deny themselves much, and work unceasingly for the truly deserving poor. Ihare is not a merchant in this town, let him be ever bo princely or generous in his donations for the poor, gives ontfonrth as mush as the poorest doctor does in services he knows ha will never gat I paid for Bnt the d< c'.or daily sees the ' misery, the havcc, theunto d unhappiness wrought by drink, for which the pnblican ge-£ ready moner. The poor wife must struggle on and half stave, the children are often improperly clothed and fed, the house is scant ly furnished, and the firing is insufficient. And why ? Became part of the money that ought to go to keep the family comfortable and respectable only too frequently assists in filling the pockets of the publican: And yet we have these false friends of the poor holding public positions—members of this and that body ! Poor men cf Dunedin and suburbs, are these y n* friends ? Ask your wives and children for a reply.