REGIMENTAL RECORDS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1879, 13 October 1913, Page 5

REGIMENTAL RECORDS.

Sir,—Re honorary Territorials in your issue of this morning, peoplo may not bo awaro that many "Records of Regiments" • aro available in the Parliamentary Library; any not there canbe procured at 2s. Gd. from London. I-am, etc., j t marshall _ (Lato "80.va.") 181 Willis Street, Oct. 7, 1913.

DOCTORS' FEES,

Sir, —I can agrco and sympathise kry largely with "A Surgeon s Mistake," Doing another myself, but I think tho better way to look at the question of "extortionate fees and

charges" is from the point of view of the average wage earned by tlio workers in this Dominion. Reckoning on n liberal basis that tho average wage id £4 per week, by the time tho visit of tho mcdical man and the mcdicino has been paid we seldom cot out under 12s. 6d.; this makos it well-nigh impossible for those who require tlio services of tho medical man to call him in, save in tho case of very urgent need. Tlio Tesult is a trouble which might easily have beon nipped in the bud, but which now requires a long, expensive course of treatment. And horo comes . tlio point. Wo all agree that "experience is the crown of old men," and since a large number of tlio medical fraternity aro young men, wo argue that it is tho patients who havo the experience, so often disastrous, rather than the medical men. It would seem to be a fair thing at least that while the members of the profession are learning at the expense of their patients they might at least consider the unfortunates in tho way of reasonable fees. Of course they must gain their experience somehow, but the irony of it is that this experience is gained entirely at another 8 expense. Three or even five years m a medical school and then to be turned out at large to "heal all manner of diseases" is a proposition which does not bear the light of investigation in this Dominion. Wo again agree, with the writer of tho letter, "The Road to Surgery," that tho time has como when doctors' fees, both medical and surgical, should be substantially reduced. Thanking you for giving tllls matter the prominence which it surely deserves, and suggesting that it, through the medium of your columns, the medical world could be brought to consider others as well as themselves and reduce their fees, tho thanks of tho entire community would bo laid at your doors. I am, «^ OTHER MISTAKE .