The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1964, 27 December 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1906.

Mr. MeSkimniing won the Ham cap Singles of the Turangnnui Bov ing Club during the holidays.

Mr. Broad, the well-known Sounds purser, lias joined the steamer \Ynikare, so as to he in readiness for the, forthcoming Sounds trip.

Captain McDonald was in col mand of the steamer Waikare yes e day. Captain Rolls joined the Ma uka tor the Sydney run. Capta. Morisby was in command of the Moi owai.

- There was beautiful weather for the holidays, excepting that it was intensely warm. There was a great crowd in town on Christmas Eve, and good business was done by the sliopkepers.

At the Eltliam Axemen’s Carnival yesterday’, the Now Zealand Championship was won by I). Pretty, bro-ther-in-law of Mr. C. Smith, of Gisborne, who heat the world’s record bv 24 sees.

The smuts mitheiiug at, Tobomarii passed off yesterday with great suc--ss Gannon von the chopping match. G. Cottcrill’s Chance was first in the horse-jumping. The meeting was well patronised by people from all along the Coast.

About one hundred people assembled on the Wnimti lieaeli yesterday, when an effort was to lie' made to catch the notorious shark “Kruger.” Though that monster was not captured, one measuring 9ft. Gin. was harpooned and hauled ashore.

On Christmas morning the ca-eless throwing down of a match caused a grass fire to sweep through tile railway paddock, and at one lime to have rather a dangerous aspect- for the surrounding property; but no damage was done beyond the h ruing of a post or two and the destruction of the summer feed.

There were several narrow escapes ol being run over on Christmas Eve. '.('hero Wits a mass of people in the roadway, and the traps had a. difficulty in getting through. One gen-tk-pian grabbed two little girls and •pulled them clear, when otherwise they must have been run over by a four-wheeler.

An old resident of the district, Mr. Thomas Stephenson .Lewis, GYJS... passed away on Christmas Day, alter an illness of about eights months’ duration. -Mr. Lewis was a man of considerable ability, but lived practically in retirement, being an orchardist. He leaves a large l'amilv. grown-up, including Mrs. (). Veale, jun., and Mrs. Midleton. The funeral took place yesterday, the Rev. Mr. AY right conducting the service.

Among the passengers by the s.s. Gothic, which again is taking up her running on the complexion of extenpsive repairs and alterations, necessitatd bv the serious fires, will lie one of the survivors of the ill-fated ship Pitcairn Island, namely, Mr. C. Waddilove, has been sent back to the colony by the s.s. Oswestry Grange, >vlucji sailed from Liverpool this week,

THE HOSPITAL ENQUIRY. I’d the .Editor of the Gisborne Times. Sir,—l should certainly fool rcliicl--1111, In trespass so much upon your space if flic suli.jccf on which I am writing worn of less pulilic importance. The action ol the Hospital Trustees in returning l)r. Collins’ letter lo him can only he regarded as weak, as well as illegal, as that letter belonged to the pulilic immediately it. was handed to the Secretary of the Board, and was no longer the properly of l)r. Collins, any more than a letter which is once posted is legally tin' property of the sender. The Trustees were perhaps within their rights in agreeing not to make if the basis on which they might re-open the enquiry into Miss Olsen’s case, if it was only a request for a re-hearing, hut if the letter adduced reasons or contained statements of facts or grave charges, it was certainly their clear duly, having once obtained possession of such charges, to thoroughly investigate them, and to allow the contents of the letter to he made public. That they allowed the fact that the doctors concerned bad mutually cleared up their grievances and “misapprehensions” (and “buried the hatchid”), to weigh with them verges on the ludicrous, for by this if would seem that in their opinion this ended the matter, and that the general public were a secondary consideration. The attitude of Dr. Morrison is no less extraordinary, for one would be disposed to think that, most men in his position would insist upon the full publication of the document, for if there was nothing in it which he feared, this could do no harm, but iT it contained grave charges—which several people had necessarily read—then he would require it. published si that he might publicly refute them. From the tone of the whole meeting, one is bound to assume that there is a desire in some quarters to burke enquiry, and to clothe everything as far as possible in secrecy, as well as that the letter was handed hack to Dr. Collins because the Trustees dared not publish it. If the meeting on the 10th prox. again resolves itself into a Mutual Admiration Society, there will he nothing left lint, for the public to insist upon a Royal Commission to subpoena witnesses and thoroughly sift all matters in connection with the Hospital to the bottom.—l am, etc.. AY. LISSANT CLAYTON. Gisborne, December 23, 1900.