Unconscious for Three Days,

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2525, 28 July 1915, Page 8

Unconscious for Three Days,

Evidence was given iby Mr. J, T. M. Homsby, M.P. On Monday. Ambulance Sergeant Yallop from Kaiwarra Hospital, had drawn attention to a statement made in tho House of Representatives by Mr. Hornsby, and .reported in a Wellington' paper, as follows:—"Mr. Hornsby asked if the Minister would tako some steps to ' secure • tho, punishment of the persons' responsible ' for the lamentable happenings that were being reported to the House.- He mentioned the case of a man who had been taken from Trentham Camp to the Kaiwarra Hospital in an unjonscious state, and whose parents had received no notice at all of his serious illness. The man had been unconscious for three days, and had been near to death." Mr. Hornsby, it was reported, had added that lie had been out to Kaiwarra to see the man. Sergeant Yallop had said ill his evidence that the man (Pte. \Vearson) had come from Wellington Hospital to Kaiwarra convalescent, and was up out of bed most of' the time lis was there. .

_ Mr. Hornsby said that he did not wish it to appear that he had misrepresented the position, for ho had informed tha Hon. B-. H. Rhodes of the correct position as soon as possible. Witness had at the outset been wrong in thinking that Pte. Pearson had been taken to Kaiwarra from Trentham, as he had actually teen taken to Kaiwarra, from the Wellington Hospital. Pte. Pearson had told him that he had been unconscious for three days, and that lie was unconscious when he left Trentham Camp.' and knew nothing fill he awoke in Wellington Hospital. ■ ' '

After hearing Mr. Hornsby's explanation, His Honour mentioned the possibility of calling Pte. Pearson before the Commission, and Mr. Hornsby stated that Pearson did not wisli to come for -fear of the consequences. His Honour: Wo will subpoena him, and then he need have no fear of any coE-sequencea. "You Should Not Have Given that Evidence." Dr. Steele, who bad- given evidenco on Holiday, and termed Berhampore Hospital.a sihack and a whare, and had withdrawn tho description after receiving a reproof from His Honour, appeared again, and asked to bo heard. His Honour: Very well. What do you wish to say? • Dr. Steele: On 6econd thoughts, I took your advice, and went out to see Berhampore Hospital in daytime. I must say I am not favourably impressed- with it. The witness added that he did not think his description necurato in point of the size of the building, but it was accurato in other respects to call it a whare. Ho did not think the place a very elalwrate one for a liospital. In a certain room there was no sink. His Honour remarked that the Commission had before.it a plan which showed that there was a sink in the room. "I think," added His Honour, "we can do very inuch better from this plan ami the evidence from others than the evidence von mav choose to give about it now. " . . "it is not accurate, for one thing, to say this sink is not in the room." Dr. Steele: As I understand it, you reprimanded, nw yesterday, so I —

His Honour: Yes; we thought you gave that evidence without a due sense of responsibility. Dr. Steele: I came here to make an explanation, and you don't eeem willing to hear that explanation. His Honour: Xou called tho hospital a shack.

Dr. Steele: That was my impression. His Honour: You should not liave given that impression, if you Lad only been there at night time.. Dr. Steele: I was a-sked tho question by Dr. Martin, who know I had onJy been there at nielit time.

His Honour: You should' not hare given that evidence. . . , Tiere will be no further discussion.

William Charlep Pollard', plasterer, Christcliurch, a brother of John Henry Pollard (one of the privates who died in Berhampore Hospital), read a letter from his brother in which it was stated that eighty men were on a certain night: packed like sardines into a Trentham hut built for fifty. It also appeared from bis brother's letter that his temperature was 103 before lie left Trentham Camp, and that when he was ordered to Kaiwarra Hospital he had to walk to and from the train. The first official notification tho family received of Private Pollard's illness came a few days before Hiis death, and it ran:

"Your son dangerously ill, Berhampore Hospital.—(Sgd-.) Thos. Harrison, Captain, N.Z.M.C."

Asked to give his experience of the Berhampore Hospital, the witness said that the floor of tho ward did not look clean; it looked dirty, and as if it only received a "lick and a promise." One day ho saw a mop being used on tho floor, which he thought an unsatisfactory way of cleaning a place. Witness asked 1 Dr. Harrison if lie would allow him to take his brother to a ljursing home, and Dr. Harrison answered that he would not tolerate any civilian interference, and that if everyone was . allowed to do that it would upset the whole organisation.' He thought his brother. was neglected: in the matter of medical attention in that Dr. Harrison only visited Ihim, in his serious state, once a day. Allegation of Overcrowding Huts. Private William Frederick Solomon, of the First Battalion, Trentham Eegiment, who was a friend of the late Private Pollard, gave evidence. As to camp matters in general, he said that until the sickness broke out there were seventy men in a hut, and the places were so crowded that some of the men had to sleep under-.the tables. The huts wero cold and draughty. The food was good and plentiful, but sometimes it was not properly cooked. They all complained about the tea, which" was afterwards improved. For a whilo there was a scarcity of water, for washing theii; faces, and their meal dishes. There were times when two or three men would have to wash in the same water. The system of a number dipping their used mugs into the tea dixie to get their shares of tile beverage still obtained. The men had to buy their own soap, and also tea-towels to wipe their dishes. They took round the hat in his tent and each put in sixpence to buy pepper and salt. Dr. Martin: Did you have to buy your own mattresses? Private Solomon: Yes. You paid two shillings for them?— "Yes." You got them from the QuartermasterSergeant?—" That is so." The men without two shillings had to go without mattresses?—"l suppose so." It would not be correct to say that mattresses were provided for the Trentham Eegiment when they arrived?— "No." Mr. Salmond: They were provided, if the men paid for them. Private Solomon said that he had seen bread carried in oil sheets on which the men had slept the night before. His Honour: Is not that the fault of the men who carry the bread? Private Solomon: No; it is according'to the orders tho men received. When you get up in tho morning, a man gets an order to take so many oil sheets and go down and get bread. , His Honour : Was that peculiar to your hut? Private Solomon: No; the other huts in Our battalion did it, too.. The Commission will continue at 10.15 a.m. to-day. : ' : ■