The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1878.

Kumara Times, Issue 437, 19 February 1878, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1878.

At the next meeting of the Kumara Hospital Ward Committee, the question of the desirableness of forming a separate Hospital district is to be considered. Under existing arrangements patients are received temporarily into the local Ward, and, as soon as practicable, removed to the Hokitika Hospital, the Kumara Committee paying smartly for their accommodation there during the whole period of their detention. In addition to this, the Committee is saddled with the maintenance of the Ward here, including the salary of a wardsman who must find some difficulty in keeping out of trouble, if Dr. Doddridge be right in the assertion that Satan finds some mischief still, For idle hands to do. At the last meeting of the Committee, in addition to disbursements on local account, a sum of upwards of ,£6O was passed for payment to the Hokitika Hospital, being the instalment due for &e preceding month. Need it be wondered at that, under these circumstances, the Committee is financially in arrears, and that there is even some talk of winding up the- concern altogether ? The fact is that in the maintenance of the Hospital Ward Kumara is “working off a dead horse ” with a vengeance, and the sooner the members of the present Committee awake to a sense of this the better. In order fully to realise the relationship which the Kumara Ward bears to the Hokitika Hospital, it must be borne in mind that for every pound subscribed here and remitted to Hokitika, the Committee there receives from Government a proportionate subsidy, every penny of which is, of course, so much loss to us and so much gain to them. As a matter of fact, they make a direct! profit out of every patient sent from Kumara, which profit goes towards the support of inmates from other districts. Will any sane man assert that

in any respect, a sound one for us 1 What we would like the Committee to do at their next meeting is to appoint a sub-committee of practical men to go fairly and fully into the question of ways and means, and to bring up a report as soon as may be convenient. By-and-bye we shall go more fully into the question of probable receipts and expenditure; but in the meantime would briefly point out for the consideration of the Committee the following cardinal points : The present Ward might be disposed of at a fairprice, and a more commodious building temporarily rented ; the increase in the cos* - of the staff would be comparatively small ; the public would of a certainty subscribe more liberally knowing that Kumara not Hokitika would reap the benefit of the expenditure; and the local Committee would draw the Government subsidy. There is one other most important consideration which we have not lost sight of: it will be necessary to obtain the services of a properlyqualified medical practitioner; and we would only point out that there are now three gentlemen practising in Kumara, and that if applications were called for (the right of private practice being, of coarse, conceded) there should be no difficulty in coming to terms with one of them. We hope the Committee will give these suggestions the most serious consideration.

such an arrangement is financially, or