The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1911. A DEMAND FOR INQUIRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1102, 15 April 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1911. A DEMAND FOR INQUIRY.

The correspondence between Dr. Dawson and the Resident Commissioner of. the Cook Islands, Mr. _ J. Eman Smith, which we publish this morning, has a very serious side to it, and one which boars closely on the administration of this outlying portion of the Dominion. The facts of the case as disclosed by the correspondence are very simple. A new hospital building was erected last year at considerable expense. This building was intended tor the benefit of the public and especially for the native population. It was gazetted as open in April, 1010, and in January, 1911, nine months later, Dr. Dawson, cxGovernment medical oflicor at the Islands, and now in private practice there, made inquiry from the Ecsident Commissioner as to whether the hospital was ready to receive patients for surgical treatment. He explained at the same time that he had a patient suffering from a serious malady requiring immediate surgical treatment and that the matter was urgent. The Resident Commissioner replied the next day, February 1, that so far as he knew the hospital was ready to receive surgical cases. Dr. Dawson then, on February 3, supplied the Resident Commissioner with particulars of three surgical cases, one of which, a case of cancer, required an immediate operation. Five days later, February 8, the Resident Commissioner replied that he had referred the correspondence to the Act-ing-Medical Officer, Dr. Story, and that gentleman thought the question had better stand over until the return of the Chief Medical Officer (Dr. Ohesson), and in this opinion the Resident Commissioner said he agreed. He added that Dn. Ciieseon was due back on the 16th instanteight days later. In view of the urgency of the matter (as stated by Dr. Dawson and supported by the subsequent early death of the patient), this shelving of the question until the return of the Chief Medical Officer has every appearance of being a very unfortunate decision and one calling for the fullest inquiry. It is rendered still more unfortunate from the fact that according to the correspondence Dr. Cuesson did not return to the island on February 16, as intimated by the Resident Commissioner would bo the case, for on February 27 we find Dr. Dawson again writing on the same subject. He says in his letter to the Resident Commissioner dated February 27: "As Dr. Story has declined to admit to the hospital the patients referred to in my letters of January 31 and February 3 last, and as Dr. Chesson has not returned at the time you indicated in your letter of February 8, I must ask you what is to bo done in the matter." Dr. Dawson added the information that one of the patients he had mentioned in his earlier letters had already died, and that he had had to do an emergency operation on another in a native house. What this latter fact means will be better understood by the medical fraternity than by laymen, and still , more clearly appreciated by those who have anv knowledge of the conditions which exist in native settlements at the Islands. It is aßtonish-

ing to note that this letter of February 27 remained unanswered for a period extending over throe weeks On March 1-1 Un. Dawson again wrote the Resident Commissioner, remarking on his failure to reply to fiis communication, adding: "Perhaps you cannot sec that in this matter human lives arc concerned." This had the effect of producing a prompt response, for the same day we find the Resident Commissioner acknowledging receipt of the letters of February 27 and March 14, and stating that the whole of the correspondence would be laid before the Chief Medical Officer on his arrival back at the Islands. Up to the first of April no further communication had been received by Dr. Dawson on the sub.lect, and at that date the position remained unchanged. It is not necessary to dwell on the seriousness of the situation disclosed. The hospital was gazetted as open to receive patients in April, 1910, and despite the persistent requests of a duly qualified medical practitioner for the admission of at least one urgent case, and two other cases, less urgent perhaps, but still requiring surgical treatment, officials at the Islands refused to admit to the institution the cases in question. The attitude of the Resident Commissioner and the Acting-Medical Officer, as disclosed by the correspondence, is quite beyond our comprehension. Whatever might have been their relations with Dr. Dawson, pne would think that their first consideration would be for the unfortunate patients requiring the conveniences which the hospital was built to supply, and that they would have made every endeavour to meet the requirements of the occasion. So far m the correspondence shows, they decided to do nothing until the return of the Chief Health Officer, and when he did not return on the expected date the matter was still further _ postponed. That they should so act in the face of Dr. Dawson , s intimation regarding the seriousness of at least one of the cases, we must frankly admit we find it impossible to explain or to understand. If the hospital were overcrowded—which it was not, being, we understand, practically empty—it would still be necessary to explain the reason given for refusing an urgent case—namely, that it would have to wait the return of the Chief Medical Officer at some distant date. If the hospital was not ready to receive surgical cases, it would still be necessary to explain the Resident Commissioner's belief as expressed in his letter of February 1 that the hospital was ready for surgical patients; and, what is more, it would be necessary to show why this new and speciallybuilt hospital, which had been gazetted as open to receive patients as far back as nine months previously, should not at that late date bo available. It is very plain that the matter_ cannot be allowed to stand whore it is. An explanation may be forthcoming—it should be demanded —and the whole thing probed to the bottom. We have urged on previous occasions that the complaints regarding the administration of the Cook Islands require investigation by a competent and impartial Commission, authorised to take evidence on oath—not the farce of a Departmental inquiry. The correspondence we publish to-day makes that investigation more necessary than ever in the in terests of all concerned,