The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1881.

Dunstan Times, Issue 979, 21 January 1881, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1881.

Dencail therule of men entirely jcstl/i pen is mightier than the sword

Tiir interest taken of late, in the affairs of the Duns an Hospital bv the Dunedin newspaper press would be very flittering to our amourpropre, were it not for the unsavoury flavour of malevolence wheiewitb it is tinc'nml. First the Herald, with marvellous want of knowledge and good taste, invited the Government to violate the law of the land by refusing to grant subsidies bn subscriptions from public bodies ; forgetting or ignoring the fact that the Dunedin Hospital has until lately, and for many years, been supported from public funds alone, whilst the Dunstan, and other cognate institutions have been maintained by voluntary subscriptions, and sub idised only by the Government. And it is.a fact borne out by the hard logic of £ s.cl. that the Yiucent County Council, has during its existenec, eontri l Tiled more to’tho Dunedin Benevolent Institution than to either of the -h c 1 Hospifulst—it flier ddileh' shimM make the Herald blush_fof shfimo at its uncalledfor attack on /the Dtnislaii Hospitu. Next the Difilv Times hiys (jh-sight proper to -eMow its columns to- lie abused by the insertion of a letter.

signed—Heaven save the mark ; “ Common Senty),” on the Incus a non lucendo principle. The evident unconcealed object of this letter is to crush the Duustan Hospital, for what purpose it is ditlicult to conjecture, without presuming the writer to he actuated hy the most debased ancj inhumane feel in s. Re it observed that every statement therein is more or less inaccurate, betraying a want of information which rcndeis the vicinusness of the attack m»«t ap parent So far from the Clyde Hos pit-al being in die position of struggling for existence, it is able to shew a balance 10 its credit. And it is not true that patients fr->m Blacks, Tinkers and the adjacent localities are seldom sent to the Duustan Hospital as the official records show. Astc the distance from each other of tjif two local Hospita s, the mo’e circnm - stance of their being only 17 miles apart says nothing Seventeen miles in » level country, is one thing. But die same distance, when considered ‘ in relation to the geographical pecnli irities of Vincent County—wh:ch is positively cut in two by a vast mountain range severing the up per from the lower Ridings—is nec-s sarily a factor of less importance Two Hospitals are absolutely necessary, and neither need conflict wid the other. Let any one imagine thi tort are a sufferer from broken limbs would endure if be had to be cartel say from Bald Hill Flat to Cromwell or from Wanaka to Clyde, in tlx burning boat of our summer, or the bitter cold of our winter; and t her ask himself whether the man who car in cold blood and of malice prepense recommend the clo.-ing of either in stitntion has not forfeited his claim t< bo esteemed a humane being. But. says the Daily Times corres pendent, “ the patients in this Institution are net numerous.” Withou the slightest desire to institute in vidious comparisons we append a ta bulated statement of the number o; patients treated in the Clyde am Cromwe 1 Hospitals of late years ; Clyde Hospital. Cromwell Hospital. • 1877—-70 61 1878 29 55 1879 63 45 1880 50 no return. It will he seen that with the ex ception of I STS, which was an excep tionally healthy year, the number o patients lias been greatest, in th n elde institution at Clyde It is a matte: for regret that when public institit tions are assailed, both writers aiu editors do not take the sligh trouble requisite, to make thcnisclve acquainted with facts. The Hail] Times has lent itself without enquiry to the promotion of an injury to i public charitable institut on. bv in serting a letter which for untruthfulness, envy, hatred and all Unchavita bleuess has seldom been surpassed. It would be a mere waste of timoh traverse the whole of this extraordi nary letter. There- is not one sen tence in the whole of it which does not include either the suggestio falsi ni the mipressio veri We think 1.-ss o: the letter itself than of the condemn able spirit shewn by the Daflv Times in its insertion. Our big contemporary may be assured that not by attacking or allowing attacks on country institn ions will its circulation be in erased, or its prestige improved But to its shame and ineffable die grace be it said, the Cromwell Argus has had the audacity' to endorse and repeat the attack on the Duustan Hospital by the insertion of the most scurrilous, and by -.consequence, the most tooths me portion of the Times letter. Far be it for us to suggest that, inasmuch as the Cromwell Hospital depends for more than its credit balance on the no-demand and non payment of some L 250 due by that institution to tire Clyde Hospital, its Committee would gladly see the lat tor abolished, and their debt thereby extinguished. We know full well that in the short-sigh tei eyes of the Argus the very ex istence of the Town of Clyde is i hateful thing. To endeavour to close a Hospital or a Church, to suppress a Benefit Society, <>r destroy any othei good and useful institution existent in Clyde is a work of love with om contemporary. But it cannot bt done. We do not envy our neigh hours their prosperity, but, content to pur.-ue “ the even tenor cf om way,” our people simply' laugh, a,they can afford to do, at the senseless hostility evinced by the would-be “Great Centre” And it is curious m ma r k that, whilst one of the com plaints i f the Dully Times’ cones poudent is that souk: of the Clyde storekeepers “are members of Com mittee, who, no doubt, help to pass their little bills, ,f the Cromwell paper in a leading article, complains that “one-half the present (Cromwell) committee have a personal interest in the way of cyntracting for sup plies !” If our contempoiiiiy is not altogether demented, he will unite with ns in endeavouring to secure the i maintenance of both Hospitals. The present time, when the insane rage for extravaga it economy is tampaut, is assuredly pot fitting for iuvitim comparisons between the two,' will the view to the extinction of eitliei - As President Lincoln would,huvt pot it—“ Never swap horses in mid stream,' 1 ’