The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 2.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 213, 2 August 1878, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 2.

The improvements which have been going on for some time past in the Akaroa Hospital are new complete. Mr J. E. March, the Government Agent for Hospitals and Charitable Aid, invited some of the gentlemen interested in the matter to meet him at the Hospital on Tuesday last, for the purpose of giving them any information they might desire as to the present state and working of the institution, in view of the contemplated transfer of the control of these matters to local bodies. In pursuance , of this invitation the Chairman of the County Council, and the Mayor of Akaroa met Mr „ March at the Hospital on the above date. The Resident Magistrate, the Medical Officer (Dr Guthrie), and J. F. Roberts, Esq., were also present. The building was first inspected. It consists of a vestibule, in which out-patients could be attended to, vaccination preformed, &c, two wards, each containing four beds, kitchen, and a room for the master and matron. The rooms are lofty, and duo attention appears to have been paid to ventilation. The furniture and fittings are also very complete. The out-buildings, beside the usual offices, consist of bathroom, washhouse, and a building containing an unpleasant looking zink-covered table, destined for the reception of the last relics of mortality After the building had been inspected, Mr March gave the fullest information as to the working of the Hospital, which will be of the greatest value when the question of taking over the institution conies to be decided on, and its responsibilities apportioned among local bodies. It appears that the total cost of the institution in salaries is a little over £200 a year. This includes medical attendance on recipients of charitable aid. A charge is made on patients sufficient to cover the cost of their maintenance. In, answer to a question as to whether this liability was, as a ruie, defrayed by patients, Mr March gave <tho particulars of the cases that had as yet been treated in the Hospital. There had been 22 patients received ; of these four were then in the institution ; of the eighteen discharged, ten had paid their accounts in full, two had paid something more than half, the remaining six had as yet paid nothing, but there was reason to believe that they could and would pay when they had had time to turn themselves round. It appears that an arrangement is made with the master and matron to supply the patients with food, according to scale fixed by the medical officer, at a fixed rate. The authorities therefore know beforehand exactly what expenses they have to incur on this score. In the course of his remarks, Mr March paid a high tribute to the zeal and energy of the matron, Mrs Dixon, in which he was corroborated by Dγ Guthrie. Altogether we think there can be no two opinions as fro the Hospital being of immense advantage to the district, and we imagine the expenses connected with it (something like £300 a year) will be supplied ungrudgingly by the local bodies interested, when once their propoitionate contributions are decided on.

A correspondent, signing himself Citizen asks how it is that steamers are allowed to be cleared on Sundays at Akaroa, and not at other ports. We confess we are at a loss for an intelligent reply. As our correspondent says, we certainly stated in a late issue that Government had forbidden the clearing of all steamers on Sundays except in cases of emergency, and our authority for saying so was reliable, but we understand the Officer of Customs at this port has received no instructions to this effect, and consequently, we presume, has no authority to decline clearing these vessels. In any case, the remedy lies in the hands of tfee public.

During the gale of Tuesday night, Mr H. S. Busheli's whaleboat, the Blanche, parted from fcer moorings, and was driven ashore near the school house. We are glad, to be able to state, however, that she escaped uninjured. The aid of a few willing hands having been obtained, the boat was soon got afloat the following morning, and now rides safely under the lea of Daly's Jetty.

Since Sunday last the weather has steadily increased in severity, until winter, which for a time seemed departed, has again returned in all its rigor and unpleasantness. On Tuesday evening last a strong south-east gale, with heavy sea, set in, and has continued with unabated force to the present, hail storms and rain alternating in showers. The ranges and even low lying spurs are covered with snow, and there is every appearance of a se\sere season as a wind-up of the winter meaths.

In the General Assembly on Tuesday evening last, Mr W. Montgomery, member for this district, gave notice of a Bill for the further endowment of the Peninsula railway.

The following list of books has been handed to us for publictaion. It is supposed to. have been intended for insertion in the proposal book in the Literary Institute, at the time when lists were invited from the public as "suggestions for.the Com- s mittee in getting in a fresh-supply of literary pabulum, and, as it is asserted that it was picked up on the road, must have been accidentally lost, an untoward event which subscribers cannot but fleplore :—Shelley's Conchologist; Recollections of Bannister, by Lord Stair; The Hole Duty of Man, by J. P. Brunei; Chantry on the Sculpture of the Chippaway Indians; The Scottish Boccaccio, by D. Cameron; Cook's Specimens of the Sandwich Tongue ,* Inigo, or Secret Entrances; Hoyle on Game Laws; Dante's Inferno, or Description of Van Demon's Land; Percy Vere, in 40 volumes; On the Affinity of the Death Watch and Sheep Tick ; Lamb's Recollections of Suett; Lamb on the Death of Wolfe; Tadpole, or Tales out of my own Head; M* Adam's Views on Rhodes; Dibdin's Cream of Tar; Pygmalion, by Lord Bacon ; Memoirs of Mrs Mountain, by Ben Lomond ; Boyle on Steam ; Rules for Punctuation, by a Thoroughbred Pointer; Chronological Account of the Date Tree; -John Knox on Death's Door; Kosiosku, on the Right of the Poles to Stick up .for Themselves ; Designs for Frieze, by Captain Parry|; Prize Poems in Blank VerseJ; ,The Rape of the Lock, with Bratuah's Notes; Haughty—Cultural Remarks on London Pride; Annual Parliaments, —A Plea for Short Commons; On Sore Throat, and the Migration of the Swallow; Debrett on chain Piers; Volj taire, Jfolney, Volta, 3 vols.; Peel on Bell's System; Grose's Slang Dictionary, or Vocabulary of Gross Words j Elegy on a Black cock, shot among the|Moors, by Wilberforce; Johnson's Contra Dictionary; Life of Jack Ketch, with cuts of his own executing ; Barrow on the Common Weal; Hoyle's Quadrupedia, or Rule of "All Fours;" Campaigns of the British Arm, by one of the German Leg. ; Cursory Remarks upon Swearing.

By advertisement elsewhere a meeting of those interested in the proposal to give a complimentary dinner to the members of the Lakes Keclamation and Akaroa Kailway Trust is convened for this evening. A meeting for the same object, hurriedly convened for Wednesday evening last, fell through, as there were not sufficient present to form a quorum. This, of cours3» was due to want of publicity, but we unticipate a good attendance this evening.

We have to remind our readers of the election, which takes place to-morrow to fill the]vacant seat on the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board. The last election, which was adjudged a failure, will still be fresh in the minds of our readers, and the close voting then exhibited tends to a firm belief that the election to-morrow will be one unequalled in interest as } T et held on the Peninsula. As far as we know, no other candidates are talked of as coming forward, so that the result lies among the three who were nominated on the last oc casion. We trust that ratepayers will not be led away by excitement, or any false affectation of sentiment, but will vote conscientiously for the nominee, who may seem to be, in each individual case, the best man for the post. It must be remembered that the positipn of a member on this Road Board 'has now acquired greatily increased duties and responsibilities in proportion to tho extent that the business of the board has increased, and that the proper representation of any section of the district is now no longer a matter of child's play, but a position demanding no small ability, experience, and discretion. With these few remarks we leave the matter in the hands of the ratepayers with every confidence in their integrity and common sense.