The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1982, 18 January 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1907.

, This evening the Hospital Trustees meet, and in duo course tho resig- , nation of tho Medical Superintendent comes before them. This matter naturally brings before the Trustees the whole question of Hospital management and re-organisation, and affords them an excellent opportunity of putting tho whole thing on a satisfactory basis. That they will attempt to do that we confess to the possession of some wholesome doubts based upon the attitude of the Chairman and other members at tho last enquiry, and before it towards those who were endeavouring to elicit the whole truth, which, we Happen to know positively, has not yet been revealed. The truth has been success'fully suppressed, and as a result public confidence in the institution, as at present controlled, is shattered. W’e have no desire to “rake up old sores’’ over this question, but w r e have a public duty to perform which a i an independent public journal we cannot shirk simply because it is ai' unpleasant duty, and because a certain cotorip of influential men would desire us to shirk it. To do that would be to sink the good name and usefulness of this paper in the mud, to admit its inability to champion the cause of truth and justice, and to acknowledge its fear of the consequences of running counter to tho wishes of a few, as against the interests of the many. Whatever those consequences may be the Times will not shirk its duty nor hesitate to declare what is right. And it is not right that we should hold our peace while a condition of things obtains in the Hospital that is not conducive to the best treatment of tho patients (or some of them) who have had perforce of circumstances to seek skilled assistance within its walls. If we did not know what we are talking about, or had not more than prima facie evidence that things are not, and have not been altogether as represented at both enquiries, not a word would have appeared in these columns in favor of a change; but we do know that things have occurred there that should * not have occurred, and that there is a very decided unwillingness to lay bare the whole truth:' If the Trustees, as a whole are sincere (some of them are, we believe) in the desire to ascertain the facts for themselves, t and to act

upon the information obtainable, if tho proper method of obtaining it ho adopted, and to do tho right tiling upon that information, thoro need hi! no misgivings that tho information will bo forthcoming; but others liko bursolvos, while doing nothing to thwart a patchwork enquiry, do not npprovo of half measures, especially when it is known that some of the Tiustoes liavo already made up thoir minds that nothing against tho management can bo proved, and strong influences aro at work to nullify the whale purpose of tho enquiry. Mention of tho enquiry impels a reference to tho puerilities of the apologies that liavo boon made in print ns a sort of counterfoil to what wo liavo . alrendy said upon this subject, wherein it is sought to niako enpi.tnl out of tho fact that tho subject o" tho enquiry was a lad “constitutionally a bad subject for treatment.” Well, admitting that such was tho case, though it lias never boon proved that his constitutional tendencies contributed t'o-his demise, is that' not a strong reason why bo should liavo received tho best attention ; but did ho got it? Even that lias not' bgou proved, and instead of tho otlior medical ovidonco having ‘''supported Dr. Morrison,” as alleged, that of Dr. Cole distinctly showed that while tho patient did not exhibit a robust appearance, ho improved rapidly under proper treatment, and tho only logical inference is that if that troatmont had .been continued, ho might bo alive to-day, although, perhaps, minus a limb. But the spocial pleading of an apologist that backs down on its own reports, and to please its friends, admits that Dr. Morrison’s contradiction of himself is not a contradiction at, all, should not occupy our time or claim tho serious notice of those who have a regard for tho truth. Still, wo fool bound to point out that, the apologist which backs down on tho accuracy of its report of tho first enquiry,■ now asks “any unprejudiced person who reads carefully and impartially” tho report of tho second enquiry to exonerate the Hospital staff on that plea. Well, if tho first report was untruthful, what guarantee have they that tho second was not so also? And this is a sample of tho logic upon which one is expected to arrive at a conclusion, and it is also an oxnmple of tho weakness of tho case upon which tho certificate —so far aB it goes—rests, and when wo take into account tho fact (suspicions in itself) that tho charts of this particular caso aro missing, while others of oven dates may bo found, and that thoro is lio record ill the operation book of an operation that is alloged to have boon performed, is not the evidonce on that side very largely discounted, as against the moro reasonable and positive but numerically weaker evidence on the other sido Although it has been attested to by the staff that there was no bed soro on the patient when lie left the Hospital, a medical man who told us that lie saw it, and who made, wo are informed, the same statement to others, forgot all about it at the enquiry, so Nurse Harney’s evidence, which we believe to be* the truth, is uncorroborated. Can anyone say then that the enquiry has satisfactorily cleared up matters, or that the position, as a result of that enquiry, is not more unsatisfactory than ever it was since the first allegation was made. We want no more of such enquiries, with a mixture of prejudiced and unprejudiced judges, with no legal responsibilities attaching to the evidence tendered in regard to its truthfulness, and wo venture to say that had the evidence been taken on oath before a proper tribunal legally authorised to extract the truth, tho matter would not now be in so unsatisfactory a position that even the special apologist dare not suggest a continuance of it, though it did once. To-night the Trustees will be confronted with that position,, and if they decline to do . what should have been done long ago, that is to clear the whole matter up by a general enquiry, tho Board, sitting as. a Commission, with the legal status of a Court, the only other alternative is to proceed with the re-organisation of the staff without further enquiry, for matters cannot be permitted to rest as they are.