New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 8, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 454, 8 December 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, December 8, 1849.

In his strictures on the Resident Magistrates and other Government Officers we may safely ascribe to Mr. Fox the exclusive credit of the scurrilous personalities with which his recent articles in the Independent abound ; his remarks on the Colonial Hospital and Surgeon appear to have been prompted in a great measure by the Mephistophiles (and a very poor devil he is) who is his attendant familiar. Professional jealousy is proverbial, and it can be readily imagined with what eagerness an unsuccessful practitioner, who has a considerable spice of malignity in his composition, and who dabbles in politics instead of attending

to his patients, would seize therppportunity of, injuring a hated and prosperous rival. But-withevery disposition' to strike, the two worthies have fallen short of their proposed aim, and their unfounded imputations only recoil on themselves to overwhelm them with disgrace. Mr. Fox complains that the Wellington Hospital, which he admits to be a legitimate object of expenditure, is badly placed and ill-administered, and informs us that he intends in his observations "to put out of sight altogether the European population, because in the first place the Government would not be justified in maintaining 1 an Hospital for that race, where the class which resorts to an Hospital is so well able to pay for medical attendance ; and secondly because the Hospital was founded exclusively with a view to the Native race." A principal consideration which would operate in determining the site of a Native Hospital would be the facility of obtaining the best medical advice ; with this view an Hospital has been established at Wellington and Taranaki, and a third is to be established at Wanganui, dividing this part of the Province, which contains the principal amount of Native population, into three districts. By this means the advantage of procuring the best medical attendance in each settlement is secured, and the Hospital, besides administering to the wants and necessities of the natives, is also available for the settlers, while the amalgamation of the two races is more speedily effected by bringing distant Natives into close and immediate contact with European civilization. If there were any foundation for Mr. Fox's charges it would have been very easy to substantiate them by a reference to facts. The best proof of the utility of the Institution is the estimation in which it is held by those for whose use it is specially designed, and if the Wellington Hospital were either inconveniently located or badly administered, we should soon find a proof of this by its being comparatively neglected by the Natives. It has now been established rather more than two years, having been opened for the reception of patients in September, 1847. The building was capable of accommodating, at first, sixteen indoor patients, but the accommodation has been recently increased to twenty, and it has always been full since its first establishment. By a reference to official documents we find that from the 15th September, 1847, to the 31st March, 1848, forty-five in-door patients (including 29 natives) were admitted, of whom 37 were discharged cured, and 113 out door-patients (including 105 natives) of whom 106 were cured. From the 31st March, 1848, to the same period in 1849, 100 in-door patients (including 60 natives) were admitted of whom 95 were cured, and 97 native out-door patients of whom 90 were cured. In short, during the space of eighteen months 291 natives have participated in the benefits of this Institution and the number is rapidly increasing. Natives have been - repeatedly brought thirty and forty miles to be admitted as patients, and of the present number in the hospital a great proportion are from Otaki, Waikanae, and other parts along the coast. Several important operations have been successfully performed, several instances have occurred* including that of Te Hiko, in which the natives have insisted upon being allowed to die in the hospital, among the friends that had been kind to them. On this subject the testimony of the Bishop of New Zealand, from his intimate and extensive knowledge of the sentiments and opinions of the natives will be allowed to have at least as much weight as that of Mr. Fox ; in his Journal recently published his lordship speaks of " the really devoted management of the hospital" exhibited by Dr. Fitzgerald, asserts that " it would be easy to trace the effect of the Wellington hospital upon the state of feeling exhibited among the natives in the South, and to show that much of their good will towards the English race has been thus produced," and declares that " several cases of successful treatment of dangerous disorders have spread the fame of the whare turoro as far as Wanganui." That Mr. Fox's familiar should wish the removal of so for-

m idable a professional rival to some native | district, that he might himself stand a better chance at Wellington is not to be wondered at, nor would it create surprise if, to keep the wolf from the door, he should be ready at a short noticeto undertake the united offices of " Parish Doctor, Political Agent, and Schoolmaster" of an extensive native district ; it might even be found in the latter capacity " He taught so well Th«t he himself by teaching leara'd to spell." But any further notice s>f this part of the subject, after the unimpeachable , evidence afforded by the Bishop of New Zealand is perfectly superfluous, especially " since the learned Editor though " quick with the tale and ready with the lie," after indulging in all sorts of insinuations, ends by confessing that he does not pretend to know anything about the matter, and that - *• the conduct of the hospital at present may " be all that could he wished." But although Mr. Fox at starting professes to put out of sight altogether the European population, he very soon forgets his resolution, and attempts to prove that an hospital established by the Government mainly for the benefit of the native race is badly managed by contrasting its administration with that of a county or University Hospital supported by private subscriptions in a thickly peopled district in England. It is obvious that no comparison can fairly be instituted between objects so dissimilar, and ,yet the principle which obtains in England, as far as the circumstances are analogous, is applied here. The hospital in England, containing perhaps some five hundred patients, is under the entire medical superintendence of four attending surgeons, with a resident medical officer as house surgeon. Here the duties are efficiently discharged under " the devoted management" of one medical officer. The surgeons are elected in England by the subscribers, by whose contributions the Institution is supported, and to a certain degree controlled by other officers also elected by the subscribers ; here the medical officer is appointed by- ,the Government by which the Institution has been established, and is to a certain extent under its control. W.hen this writer complains, as a very serious evil, that medical practitioners are not permitted to follow " their private patients" into an Institution not originally designed for them, and which he admits the government would not be justified in maintaining for their use, does he pretend that such a practice would be tolerated in England ? Does he mean to assert that any private practitioner would be allowed to interfere with the treatment of patients* in an English Hospital by those Surgeons who have the exclusive medical superintendence of them, and whose reputation is at stake for the result ? The clap-trap of gratuitous superintendence cannot deceive any one, since it is notorious that, in the case cited, the the Surgeons obtain a considerable addition to their income from their pupils who walk the hospital, and the extended practice derived from their position in connection with the institution. In these remarks we have confined ourselves to the general question, we may safely treat the low insinuations which follow with the contempt they deserve, but we do not think, if the two political doctors were allowed to take the hospital 41 week and yreeb about," as is proposed, from their known indifference and dislike for the natives and their complete ignorance of the language, that the change would prove a beneficial one, or would have the effect of increasing the confidence which the natives at present repose in the Institution. It would be difficult characterize as it deserves the attack made upon Dr. Fitzgerald by this would be leader of public opinion for an entertainment given at his private house, and which, by the way, has been productive of very beneficial results, but we hope we shall never see such crimes committed in the name of liberty in this settlement, as the establishment of a despotism which, under the colour of "popular control," Bhall follow, as is here attempted, a man to his domestic hearth, and invkde the sanctity of private life. '\.

It is amusing to witness the simulated zeal of this overpaid sinecurist for economy and retrenchment, and still more amusing to find that many of the recommendations on which he plumes himself have been made months ago by those he aTects to undervalue, and whom he would fain, if he could, drag down to his own level. When Mr. Fox proposes a reduction in the Superintendent's salary at Nelson he only repeats what we urged last May, when we took occasion to observe that " there appears no reason why the Resident Magistrate at Nelson, merely because he is called his Honor the Superintendent, should receive £200 a year more than the Resident Magistrate at Wellington, who is also Sheriff without any additional salary, and who has at least three times as much to do." When he recommends, the abolition of the offices of Treasurer and Auditor and that these departments should be attached to that of the Colonial Secretary, he would have his readers forget that the reduction or abolition of these departments was strenuously but unsuccessfully attempted by Mr. Hickson, Mr. Moore, and other non-official members in the Council. Even his attempts at pleasantry, faint and feeble though they be, are borrowed. When he talks of laying out Mr. St. Hill and Major Wyatt, if necessary, in building ferry boats, he is only a clumsy plagiarist from Dr. Greenwood who in the I debate on the estimates referred to said "he thought one Judge would do for New Zealand, and he would turn the other into a dozen schoolmasters. He thought one Auditor General would do, and that the other (that is his salary) might be employed in repairing the Hutt Road." But though, as we have shown, these arrows are not from his quiver, though these recommendations are filched without acknowledgment from those whom he accuses of conspiring together to rob the public, the coarse personalit ies and vulgar insolence with which they are enforced are all his own. In the prostitution of the legitimate powers of the Press, in a reckless licentiousness of language, and in the fluency of his Billingsgate the learned editor of the Independent has earned an unenviable notoriety. In exposing his scurrilous attacks we have been moved not by any party zeal, but by a desire to uphold the truth and to confute his unscrupulous assertions. We profess no blind attachment to the Government or implicit faith in Government Officials; we freely admit, and have often stated that some of them might be changed for the better, and other dispensed with to the advantage of the Public Service. The support we have given to Sir George Grey's administration has been offered in an honest spirit, from a sense of the benefits he has conferred upon the colony and a conviction that he sincerely desires to promote its prosperity, and this feeling, we are persuaded, is entertained by the great majority of the settlers. And now having " answered a fool according to his folly," having, to use his own choice phraseology, given him " a good deliverance," we leave him to a congenial occupation, — *' To suckle fools and chronicle small beer."

On Monday the remains of Te Rauperaha were consigned to their laat resting place. The spot, which was selected by Rangihaeata, is within the inclosure surrounding the new Church at Otaki, and immediately in front of that building. The coffin was made in the usual manner and covered with black cloth, a brass plate was affixed to the lid on which was the following inscription — "KoTe Rauperaha i mate i te 27 o Noweraa, 1849," — Te Rauperaha died 27th November, 1849. We understand that Tamahana, his son, has spared no expence in the preparations connected with the occasion, and evinced great anxiety that every thing should be in conformity with the customs of the pakeha. There/ was a great gathering of the tribes, upwards of fifteen hundred persons being present. The procession to the grave extended to a considerable length ; the service was read by Mr. Ronaldson, the Missionary Teacher from Wanganui. After the funeral was over Tamahana entertained his visitors in a very hospitable manner, a bullock had been killed for their use and abundance of refreshments provided. Two table*, at each of

which fifty persons sat down, were prepared for fresh sets of guests four different times. There was very little tangi, which was as far as possible discouraged by the Otaki natives, and the whole proceeding was decorously conducted.

The Minerva arrived on Wednesday from Sydney after a passage of nineteen days. The English News by this opportunity is of an interesting nature, and extends nearly a month later than that received by previous arrivals.

Quantity of Rain fallen during the month of November, 1849— 2 in. 6-tenths.