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Kumara Times, Issue 1744, 3 May 1882, Page 2

A meeting of the Hospital Committee was held last evening at Mr Nicholson’s office, Maiil road. Present Messrs Pearn (chair) Toms, Spyers, Morgan and Dlnan. The miftutes of the previous meeting having been read and confirmed, a letter was read from Mr John White, asking, as a member of committe, whether he could vote by proxy in regard to Mr Toms’s motion concerning the hospital. This was decided in the negative. The following letter was read and received from Dr. Porter.— Gentlemen— l see that Mr R. Toms, has given notice of an amendment of Rule 3. Now, as this amendment will considerably affect me, I venture to address you on the subject. In the first jfiace, to take his motion, with regard to the dispensing of medicince. This motion is brought forward in order that if the outpatients get medicine at the hospital the dispensing may fall on me. I already do the bulk of the dispensing for in-patients. But as I am not always at the hospital, the wardsman, occasionally, puts up a bottle of medicine, chiefly aperient. I have instructed Mr Ross 12 months in doses and medicine, and consider him fully competent to dispense. And I do not think it necessary to send for a qualified chemist (i.e. Mr Toms the only qualified chemist in the place) if I happen to be out and the patient wants a draught. All the dispensing in Wellington and other hospitals has been done by a wardsman instructed solely by the medical man. If any patient has complained about his medicine let him be brought forward and the complaint investigated. As regards dispensing medicine for out patients it has already been tried and failed. Will Mr Toms himself, find all the sick people in the district with medicine for six months for 10s, or for a year £l, If the committee tries this I require at once a dispenser ; (under Mr Toms’s new rule) and also £BO or £IOO worth of drugs. Even then I should want drugs occasionally from the chemists for outpatients ; and the price of this, the committee have already investigated. As regards the letter, which has °been concocted by my friends, and given to Stanton to sign, and which appeared in the Kumara Times, I deny that it represents the opinion of the majority of the public, and is an outcome of private malice and spite, signed by a man who has never supported the hospital (under any Dr.) or any other institution, I am Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, T. L. Porter. The sum of 16s Gd was voted to Mr King for damage done to lamps used at the last concert in Westbrook. The Secretary stated that he had received the sum of £7 from Messrs Ames and Ryan on account of the late Mr Brown, also the sum of £2 5s Gd on the Bth February from the Choral Union. Votes of thanks were passed to Messrs Ames and Ryan, also to the Choral Union for their respective donations. The Secretary was authorised to purchase certain goods for the use of

hospital. Accounts amounting in the aggregate to £4B 6s were passed. Mr Toms said that as there was oiily a small attendance, and as his motion was a most important one, he would move that the consideration of it should stand over till next meeting. Mr Morgan seconded the motion which was carried. The meeting then adjourned. The Court was crowded to-day with Chinese and Europeans, the occasion being the cross actions of Ward and party v. Turn Sura and party, and vice versa. The cases were not expected to be finished before the Court rose. Among the passengers by the mail coach to-day was T. Weston, Esq., M.H.R., who is visiting his constituents in the Grey Yalley. Within the last day or two we have noticed that the various vacant spaces in Kumara have been “illustrated with cuts,” representing the “human form divine ” in all sorts of postures and attitudes. These simply means that the Royal Australian Circus was about to pay Kumara a visit. While admiring these -specimens of ornamental printing to-day, we were saluted with “ Halloa ! old hoy, how are you getting on,” and looking round we found it was an old acquaintance, Mr Robert Love, well-known on the Coast in connection with the Comedy Company, and he informed us that he was the avant courier in connection with the above-named circus. The circus has been so well-known throughout the Australian colonies and in New Zealand, that newspaper description is almost unnecessary, and the mei’e fact of Mr Love being in connection with it, is a sufficient guarantee that it is about the best circus that has ever visited the Coast. In matters “ horsey” there is everything to recommend it—riders, tumblers, clowns, gymnasts, &c., and it shows a great amount of spirit for the proprietor to bring such a large and expensive establishment to the Coast. It is probable that the circus will open here about Monday, and as it will only stay here positively for two nights onty, those who admire, and who does not, the exhibition of trained animals should avail themselves of this opportunity. According to the Grey River Argus it is reported that a new goldfield has broken out at Slatey Creek, Moonlight, but the report requires confirmation. The Solicitor-General states, in reply to an enquiry from the Chairmen of the various licensing committees in Greymouth, that it is absolutely necessary that applicants for renewals must comply with the 56th and 57th clauses of the Act. Some extraordinarily hard swearing took placS at the Oamaru Resident Magistrate’s Court oil Monday. George Wallace, a publican at Ngapara, who has frequently been charged with breaches of the licensing laws, was charged with being drunk whilst driving a buggy. Constable Cleary swore that when he saw defendant driving along the road defendant was drunk. He had a companion in the buggy, who was sober. This companion was James Campbell, a blacksmith, who swore that Wallace was sober, as also did an ostler who had seen the buggy start. The charge was dismissed. Wallace was further charged with using threatening and abusive language to the constable on the same occasion. Constable Cleary was again the only witness for the prosecution; but fur the defence James Campbell swore most positively that they never saw the constable, and, therefore, that Wallace most certainly never used the langua' e imputed to him. His Worship (Mr Robinson) said he could not profess to understand on which side the truth lay, and dismissed this charge also. The Journal de Rome announces that at the approaching Consistory the Pope will create seven new cardinals, in the persons of Mousignor M'Cabe, Archbishop of Dublin ; Monsiguor Lluch y Garriga, Archbishop of Seville; Monsignor Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers ; Monsignor Agostini, Patriarch of Venice ; Monsignor Ricci, Major-domo to His Holiness ; Monsignor Jacobini, Assessor of the Holy Office ; and Monsignor Lasagni, Secretary of the Congregation of the Consistory. A great sensation was created in Berlin recently by the report that a crime had been perpetrated somewhat resembling the diabolical Thomas affair in Bremen a few years since. In that case a ship was destroyed, together with many lives, by the premature explosion of an infernal machine intended to sink to vessel in midocean, and thereby enable the criminal to claim a heavy insurance. In the present instance a dangerous fire was occasioned at the Berlin terminus of the Stettin Railway by a very similar accident. An agent residing in Berlin had booked and

heavily insured a box at the station, and during the night the good-sheds became the scene of a sudden and destructive conflagration. On the following morning, after the fire had been subdued, the authorities instituted an investigation into the cause of it, when it was discovered that the box referred to contained a clockwork apparatus, which had been wound up so as to go off irt. twelve hours. The principal contents of the box consisted of explosive and combustible matter, including a nitro-glycerine compound. The perpetrator of the outrage was known, and was at once arrested. When insuring the case, its contents were declared to be velvet, feathers, and furs. Mr Joseph Co wen, M.P., speaking at Newcastle in February last, adverted to the fact that there were now in Great Britain 400 farms, covering fully 50,000 acres, unoccupied, while an equal number or more were estimated to be let only for rates, repairs, and taxes. In contending for a permanent rent reduction as the only means of coping with foreign competition, Mr Cowen pointed out that agriculture was still the staple trade of the country. There was invested in it a capital of £700,000,000 —little short of the amount of our National Debt; while the capital sunk in mines was only £56,000,000, and in iron works £29,000,000. There were employed in agriculture 3,100,000 persons, while there were occupied in mining of all descriptions—coal as well as metal—--1,200,000, and in our textile manufactures 2,150,000 persons. He maintained that investment in land should be made as negotiable as those in the funds.