PUBLIC OPINION.

Patea Mail, 8 March 1882, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

Contributions, Letters, Inquiries and Answers thereto, are invited on Farming. Commerce, Politics, and matters of interest to the Patea district. Names of writers need not be Printed.

FAIR PLAY ALL ROUND

I ask your assistance to place before the public some facts which were not stated in the report of the Hospital Inquiry Committee. I admit that the Commit tee could not obtain evidence very readily, .as there Was no power to compel witnesses to appear before them.

For this reason alone I submit that the inquiry has been anything but satisfactory. Not a single charge as to the improper manner of dealing with Hospital liqnors at the County building was sifted to the bottom by the Committee. When I asked for an inquiry, I did not understand the proper course of proceeding, but thought it would be a thorough investigation made in public, like the Wellington Hospital inquiry. What actually took place was very different. When I went before the Committee to state certain matters which I had seen and knew of, I was cross-questioned and brow-beaten as if I were a criminal. I was asked for my witnesses, and I mentioned names; but because I had no power to compel those persons to come and give evidence of what they had seen, the Committee rounded on me as if I had committed a crime in bringing before them the facts which I did know as to the Hospital liquors being used at the County building in an irregular manner.

I was sorry to see a paragraph in the Mail just before the enquiry was held, because I wanted the Committee'to find out for themselves that liqueurs were missing. That paragraph gave public notice, and of course it was easy to make things appear better after that notice than they were before. But even allowing all that, it did come out that the Clerk had received from the contractor three gallons of brandy and at least one gallon of wine more than he accounted for to the Committee. I was therefore justified, by these two facts, in calling attention to the improper appropriation of liquors intended for Hospital patients, but which never reached the Hospital.

I had not been Steward of the Hospital a month before I noticed the loose manner in which Hospital liquors were dealt out. I told the Surgeon that, from the way the liquors were going at the County building,, there would be sure to be an inquiry some day, and that for ray own protection I wished him to countersign my book every time I received liquors for the Hospital. The doctor signed my book after that, and I produced it to the Committee. I accounted for every bottle received at the Hospital since I went there. The Committee say, in their report, that I may have forgotten to enter liquors. No ; I was too careful for that. It was quite a joke among Volunteers and others at that time as to the way liquors were going.

The brandy was latterly kept in a jar, not in bottles, at the Council building; and when I have gene to the Clerk’s office on his office clays (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), it was a rare chance to find him in. I have had to hunt him about the town for anything I wanted. I told the Committee so. I have opened the door next to the Clerk’s office, and seen the brandy jar on the floor and a glass on the table with some brandy in. I have met the Clerk in the street, and instead of going to his office to give me the brandy I wanted for the Hospital, he has got bottles at a hotel and handed them to me. I believe the last two bottles which he got at Haywood’s and handed to me during the Christmas holidays arc not yet paid for. The Council had a contract with Mr Taplin to supply all liquors at that time. About a month before the inquiry I went to the Clerk for two bottles of brandy, taking clean brandy bottles with me to put the liquor in. The Clerk filled two empty porter bottles with

brandy out of the jar, ami passed them to me. I put the liquor into the proper brandy bottles which 1 had brought; and on serving the brandy to patients I noticed it was just like dirty water flavored with brandy, and only that. When the stuff had settled, one bottle showed at the bottom a large blow fly, two other flies, and a grub. The other bottle showed flies at the bottom after settling. That is the stuff which the Clerk banded to me for sick patients. I showed the liquor to three visitors, and they can state what they saw. I hope it is not expected that a Steward should serve out flies and grubs in dirty water to sick patients, and tell them the Clerk sent it instead of brandy. When the Surgeon had a relative visiting him at the Hospital a few days, the Clerk growled about the expenses of the Hospital, and said if the doctor settled in Patea he would make it hot for him. At other times the Clerk said that since I became Steward the Hospital has been managed cheaper and better than before. I have collected over £39 from patients after leaving the Hospital, in payment for their treatment, as is required when they become able to pay. It was no part of my duty to hunt after ex-patients for getting them to pay instalments of what they owed to the Hospital, but I knew the money would not be collected unless I looked after it. I also collected £lO 4s in cash at Christmas to purchase extra comforts for patients; and I got other articles to the value of about £5.

I ask the public whether, under these circumstances, they think I have done what was my duty in asking for a proper investigation. I also ask the public whether they think the County Council and the Committee have done me justice in screening the Clerk and dismissing the Steward, I had intended to resign in any case, but was advised not to do so till the Committee had made their report. I had my resignation written before their report was presented to the Council, for I have found it a hard and thankless position to be Steward of the Hospital, my wife, having to do all the washing, and the Clerk doing all he could to make the position unpleasant. D. Donley.