The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 407, 15 January 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1878.

It will be an everlasting disgrace to the miners of this «xtensive and—notwithstanding all the outcry about dull times —really prosperous Goldfield, if the Local Hospital Ward has to be abandoned because- of lack of support. In a coinamnitystitch as ours, where so large a portion of the population continually liave, as it were, their lives in their hands, and serious accidents are of almost daily occurrence, the machinery provided for the relief of | human suffering should' never be perj mitted to run the risk of coming to a complete stoppage for want of monetary " lubrication. But this is precisely the danger in which the Kumara Hospital Ward now is; and unless the rasidents of the district generally, and the miners niore particularly, come to the rescue, " For Sale or to Let" will have to be chalked up on the doors of an institution of which as a community we ought to be proud. A glance over .the subscrip-tion-list will show that the townspeople —the store and hoteUkeepers—have, on the whole, given of their means liberally j but the miners, the men who are most likely to reap the benefits confered -by the institution, have been decidedly " backward in coming forward." Is this to be the case in future 1 We are appealing on tfehalf of >the Kumara Hospital to men who do not desire to be" handled with a velvet glove y who, we take it, much prefer being spoken to in plain language; and we put it to any one of them wbetheiyshould.it ever be his misfortune to. be stretched upon , a bed of pain within its walls, bankrupt in health and possibly in pocket, it would not be some comfort to him to reflect that while in health and strength he had performed . his .fair share towards -maintaining it. Why, the difference between the feelings of the patient who has ignored this plain duty and of him who has faithfully done it, must be as wide apart as those

of the pauper receiving charity, and those of the independent man claiming the assistance to which be has a, right and just title, if the miners of Kumara will look at the matter in this light, and will read the report of the Committee meeting held last night, we are as assured that the response to the practical • appeal about to be made to them will be liberal, as- ;we are that any previous neglect has been the result of mere thoughtlessness—not of any serious intention to ignore an obvious and a sacred duty.