The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1497, 3 December 1878, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1878.

Any effort to make the Hospital selfsupporting, or partially self-supporting, must be regarded with the greatest respect. The scattering of charity, indiscriminately, is not good for the donors or the recipients. If the whole cost of the maintenance of any patient cannot be recovered some portion at least should be insisted on, wherever any reasonable prospect of its recovery exists. There are, we fear, too many cases admitted, and dealt with at the public cost, which are, as Dr. Turnbull says, those of mere loafers. The burden of supporting the really unfortunate is sufficiently great without being overlaid by the incubii that it is freely hinted are at present imposed on the institution, At the same time it will not do to endeavor to extract from those able and willing to pay, enough to make up in any degree for the deficiencies of the destitute. While it is necessary to discourage the entrance of individuals who can afford to obtain attention outside, yet it must not be forgotten that there are numbers who, though in comparatively good circumstances, are really homeless, and to whom it would be the worst of cruelty to deny admittance. We have been led into these remarks by a circumstance that occurred at the meeting of the Hospital Board yesterday. It appears that some celebrity has accrued to a well known medical gentleman of Christchurch, one of the Hospital staff, from his successful treatment of opthalmic diseases, and a person suffering in that way has been sent down from Patea to obtain the benefit of that gentleman’s services, being the while lodged in the Hospital. The Board agreed to take charge of the patient, and fixed the payment to ho made by him at £2 2s. pei week. Why the particular sum of two guineas should bo charged is not apparent, and it would puzzle any of the gentlemen who passed it to explain why £2 would not do as well as two guineas. Still, wo may pause here and inquire if it really does cost two guineas or £2 to feed, lodge, and cure any patient (except in very exceptional cases) ? In short, the charge seems to us quite exorbitant, and, without having at hand statistics to back our opinion, wo have no hesitation in saying that the cost to the institution of the case quoted, will not be more than half that sum. We feel sure that it is only necessary to draw the at-

tention of the Board to this seeming overcharge, to have it corrected, if necessary, or we shall not bo in the least displeased to be sot right if wo are wrong. The progress in usefulness of the Hospital is, wo are sure, noted with very great interest by every thoughtful observer. Taking everything together, the rapid growth of the population it servos, the limited pecuniary means at its disposal, and the lack of the abundance of medical talent that is to be obtained in more populous countries, we need not be ashamed of the figure made by our own house, and there is no fear but that as wo all progress, it will increase in usefulness and efficiency. Whether the building itself, and its site, is best suited for its purposes will, no doubt, have to bo looked into very shortly, but, in the meantime, it is sufficient to know that the best is made, that can bo made, of the circumstances in which it is found. Any suggestion that may lead to an extension of its usefulness will, we are certain, be received in the same spirit in which it is offered, so we say, with all duo diffidence, that there cannot now be any reason why it should not serve as a school as well as an Hospital. An application received yesterday from Mr Paul Neck, for permission to “ walk ” the Hospital, is, wo believe, the first stop made in that direction. Without knowing anything at all about this particular student, we may safely say that if the system is introdneed, it will load to the rearing up by our own motion, of a class in which the community is sadly deficient. The mere leading of students round the Hospital certainly, will not make physicians and surgeons, but it will give that experience at homo which has now to be sought abroad. There is no material difficulty, wo take it, in creating a power competent to finish what may be thus begun, and there is no reason whatever why an M.B. or M.D., a graduate of a Christchurch, New Zealand, College, should not stand on the same footing as he would if he acquired the same degrees in the Melbourne University, The difference in the register color would not debar him from practising in company with, or in opposition to, the most ex-pensively-raised and fostered pets of European Colleges that have a worldwide renown. Besides, and by no means lastly, in the advantages to be gained by the initiation of the scheme wo propose, economy is one of its chief recommendations. Many a parent here who has a clover boy, and who is able and willing to educate his son, if his education is to be compassed by a reasonable expenditure, is shut out by the enormous cost which is entailed when the education has to be obtained at a distance. A great part of this difficulty would disappear if the schooling could bo accomplished at home. That this matter will be taken up and worked out at some time is sure enough. It is our aim to accelerate its consideration, and if our arguments only succeed, even in the slightest degree, we shall be quite satisfied.

Save us from our friends. A writer in the “ Star,” who has already done us good service, blundered last night upon something which his friends, at any rate, will agree with us had better been left alone. We do not intend to dwell upon the impertinence which prompted the interpretation he has given of a few of our remarks made at a former time, he has a perfect right to construe in his own peculiar position anything we may say. But, we may be allowed to observe that, we are not bound in any way to agree with his interpretations. The most mischievous and dangerous fault that a journalist can fall into is the habit of imputing motives of a personal nature to writers who may chance to take an opposite or different view of passing events. In the present case, we most distinctly deny that any feeling beyond the mere desire to express our convictions on matters that are in effect public property. That our remarks were founded on correct observation is proved conclusively by the defence in last night’s Star of an individual never named by us. The assumptions and reflections on what we might have meant, which are scattered throughout the article we allude to, are the writer’s own, and we wish his friends joy of them.