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Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 331, 16 May 1877, Page 2

And yet another absurd proposition from the Daily Times ! In its issue of Tuesday it suggests, with that amount of quiet coolness which usually characterises its utterances, that the barque William Gilford should have been beached inside the Oamaru Breakwater instead of being sent to sea after being injured. A more stupid suggestion could not have been made even by the Daily Times, and, goodness knows, that is saying a great deal. We take it that the captain of the vessel and the Harbour Masters were the best judges as to what was the best course to be pxirsued, and acted accordingly. Had the Gilford been- beached here she must inevitably have become a total wreck, while there was every probability of her being able to reach Port Chalmers, and there being placed in a good dock. That the gentlemen named were warranted in pursuing the course they did must be self-evident from the fact that the vessel was kept afloat for a much longer time than, under ordinary circumstances, would have enabled her to reach Port Chalmers ; and had a tug been sent to meet her, as requested, there would not have been the slightest probability of any disaster attending her before reaching the dock. It is really astonishing that a journal with such pretentions to respectability and high learning should be guilty of propounding so many absurd propositions as almost daily emanate from the Daily Times.

If any further evidence were wanting to prove the fallacy of the system of appointing medical men as Coroners, it is afforded by circumstances attending the inquest held at Dunedin, touching the death of the man Bowers, the particulars in connection with which were published by us yesterday. No one who has r- ad the evidence at that inquest will deny that the actions of certain members of the medical profession were called into question. Such being the case, it was manifestly unfair that a medical practitioner should be permitted to sit in judgment upon his rival medicos. The injustice of such a proceeding is greatly aggravated by the existence of a considerable amount of professional jealousy, as is the case in Dunedin at the present time. We observe, by a telegram from our Dunedin correspondent, that Dr. Bcens has written to a contemporary, j complaing of the injustice thus inflict-d upon professional men. With the matter in dispute between Dr. Burns and Professor Macgregqr, with reference to the correctness of the latter's evidence at the inquest, we have nothing to do. Both gentlemen are well able to fight their own battles, and need no assistance from us. But we have a right to protest against the infliction of an injustice

upon any section of the community. However anxious a Coroner might be to discharge the duties of his office in a straightforward manner, he would be something more than human were to succeed in so far overcoming his feelings of professional jealousy as to render his actions entirely free from bias. The present Coroner system is unsatisfactory, and places the Coroner and his brother medicos alike in unpleasant positions.