LOS ANGELES

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1926, Page 4

LOS ANGELES

IMPRESSIONS OF AN AUCKLANDER. AUCKLAND, Aug. 31. Dr J. Hardie Neil lias returned from l.os Angelos greatly impressed wiih the community hospital there. It is, in his opinion, one of the finest in the world, and has at. its head a sister of Lord Ijeaverhrook. The hospital is now being enlarged Ml a cost of £2sf),C!)'l. The community hospital is now the recognised system throughout the United States. It is used by all classes, and its service gives the utmost satisfaction. Los Angeles also has a county hospital of JACK) beds, for which the Stale is responsible. Another 1500 beds are now being ridded to this institution.

The Wallace wards at Auckland Hospital were .similar to the most recent erections in the United States, continued Dr Hardin Neil. So far as medical service was concerned, Auckland was generally as well served as Los Angeles, although the latter centre had attracted certain world leaders in pari ieular departments. Los Angeles as a city had evidently made la very favourable impression on fjr Hardin Neil. He remarked that its architecture was well-nigh perfect, the style being Mediterranean mingled with Spanish "Mission. The city appeered to him to be particularly well managed. Traffic control had been elevated to a fine art, and affected pedestrians as well as vehicles. Automatic alarms were largely used, and the result Vilas an almost complete absence of street accidents. Moreover, the streets were not noisy, and everything seemed to be weil ordered. Oil. fruit and catering for a, numerous retired population, and the annual winter migration from the cold Eastern .States

were the chief bases on which the utilizing prosperity of Lis Angeles was founded. Moreover, living was as cheap there as in Auckland, while the tariff at tho leading hotels was no clearer there than here. Dr Hardie Neil found the Los Angelenes a law-abiding people, but when asked if this respect for law extended to prohibition, lie laughed, and confessed that emphatically it did not. Prohibition seemed to he more honoured in tho breach than otherwise. One prominent citizen told the doctor how lie was expecting a consignment of liquor on a rum-runner. Ihe steamer v4as seized by the authorities, and the citizen rang up his agent to bewail his loss. “Yes,” replied the agent, “it is indeed a great loss, and therewill he a delay of a fortnight now beforo I can give you delivery of your order.” Dr Hardie Noil concluded that medical opinion was strongly against prohibition, but its greatest condemnation was tho lawlessness that it induced. People whose stocks of liquor were purloined had no remedy at law, and took the Biw into their own hands. It [ did not require much thought to see what that involved and where it- led.