KUMARA HOSPITAL AFFAIRS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2527, 2 December 1884, Page 2

KUMARA HOSPITAL AFFAIRS.

[to the editor.]

Sir—Sound Sense is preferable to the Rev. G. Hay's " Simple Silly." In answering the Rev. G. Hay I need not travel through the whole of his production. He may rest assured I shall not go to him to be taught grammar, logic, or wit, as he is not over-lmrtheued with either. OE course he does not like his opinion called in question—clergymen never do; tuey

are so used to preaching that they cannot understand being answered back. In the pulpit they carry everything ho. fore them, and therefore think they can do the same when they Icuve it, which is evidently the Rp.v. G. Hay's case. He dislkes being taken to task for threatening to withdraw his patronage from the Kumara Hospital, which he values far above a sermon and a collection, whatever that may be worth. I took up the argument from a different point of view to his. I expected to find in a pastor a pattern, some one to to look up to, to guide us out of any uuseemly difficulty that may arise—not one to follow in the downward track because "certain diggers had refused to continue their support." My ideal of a clergyman was one who was always ready to succour the sick, the maimed, and the dying; and not discontinue that Christian duty under the most trying circumstances. Bat my ideal in this instance has fallen very low indeed. The Hospital must be kept up; the sufferers cannot be alllowed to lie there unattended. Will no one take the Rev. G. Hay's place and continue the duties which he has so modestly performed, and now intends abandonin? ?

In No. 1 paragraph the Rev. G. Hay is totally out of his latitude; he mistakes my "aid" and thinks it means reading a burial service over a corpse. Nothing of the sort; my aid meant cash. Anyone with less zeal than the Rev. G. Hay would have known that instantly. The next is richer still: Religious aid, he says, is if you belong to a church and buy a ticket for a Hospital entertainment; in substance that is religious aid. In No. 2 he flatly denies that the diggers provide the bulk of the revenue for the Hospital, and never adduces one single figure in proof of his assertion. Where did the £2OO come from last Easter fete ? Where do the overflowing houses come from at entertainments for the benefit of the hospital, which produce sums varying from about £35 to £7O? Why, chiefly from amongst the hard-working diggers. As to the Government subsidy of £ for £, the digger is here again to the fore. It is well known he pays twice or thrice as much Customs duties as the average consumer. Nearly everything ho uses is taxed tip to 15 or 20 per cent j while some other industries get off nearly free. The £ for £is only a part of those taxes back again, making up, as previously said, the bulk of the revenue for the hospitals in diamine districts. At the end of No. 2he puts an impertinent question which I answer this way. Perhaps "S. S." digger owes his storekeeper less than the Rev. George Hay owes his. He has an inquisitive turn of mind. He would also like to know what the digger would do with his gold without food. I expect he would buy air with it and live on that, like the patients in the hospital will have to do now the Rev. G. H. has discontinued his patronage. He concludes by aaying a " false notion is prevalent." I don't think so. A digger subscribes for a yearly ticket; if he unfortunately meets with an accident he goes to the hospital, aud he is charged £1 10s or more per week ; that is a fair business transaction; he pays for what he receives, and is not the pauper which the Rev. G. H. would like to make us all believe he is.

In the early part of his letter he mixos up clergy and marriage certificates in a mysterious manner. Perhaps the Rev. G. H. means he never had one himself.

As to appending my name to my I effusions, I may say this is not a personal, but a public matter, which does 1 not require it. I therefore still remain to the Rev. Mr Hay, S S December 1, 1884. [to the editor.] "Blessed are the peacemakers, &c." Sir—The emauatkm in to-night's issue da bed from "The Manse," leads me to the opinion that the writer has mistaken his vocation. He should have been an advocate; then if he had a bad case, to bully, the other side would be quite professional. I think if the public who have taken such interest in the welfare of our local Hospital and watched the proceedings of the Committee during the past three months were to speak out, they would say the doctor has brought all this trouble upon himself. And I think the parson ought to have kept out of it, and not have disgraced the tie that he wears.—l am, sir, yours truly, One of Hay's Nobodies. Kumara, December 1, 1884.

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