The Southland Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1867.

Southland Times, Issue 653, 5 April 1867, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1867.

Jjscverca&giltj has long been remarkable for the abortive attempts that have been made to establish institutions of a class that almost universally command support in every British community. It is generally the boast of Englishmen that wherever they go they plant those institutions that have honored the "fatherland," and rendered their race conspicuous as the guardians of the afflicted, the promoters of popular knowledge, and the disseminators of all that is noble and human. It is with humility that we are compelled to confess that in Southland there are few monuments of this feeling having taken root. It is true that from time to time attempts have been made to establish Mechanics' Institutions, Literary Societies, Benevolent Associations, and a desire on the part of the people has been evinced to efface the -• plague spot" of having to depend upon the Government to maintain the institution that it should be tbeir pride to support — the Hospital. It has been our duty in times past to record the failures of the few who sought to bring about a better order of things. The failure of the projects to which we allude, however, have not arisen from a want of sympathy on the part of the public with those who aimed to plant these institutions in our midst, but from a misgiving as to the ability, amiabili-y, and sincerity of those who lought to take a prominent par. in their toad-action. The publio dial tolerably Veil indi<jftt«is the capacity of tbe avtibU fc*u»> *n4 *&$ |-aMicw^fe^^e^iUaUoa

of the pendulum that denotes the characjter of the metal of which such men are made, the mental capacity and workable qualities they possess. There has hitherto been an almost farcical exhibition of the pertinacity of " one idea " men ; each member of the committee has had his crotchet, and persistently maintained it until a "bear-garden" performance has terminated the existence of associations that were universally acknowledged to be desirable, and were started with prospects of success. Hence we have no public institutions — nothing to which we can point to with pride, and say, " Our British instincts have done this." Has the time come when unity of action will become the leading feature of Invercargill's representative men ? We hope it is not far distant ; stili we have our fears. The Provincial Hospital has become a public institution — the people are called upon to accept a responsibility that it will be an honor to discharge, and a disgrace to reject. The succur of the afflicted is a duty devolving on the less unfortunate of the community that cannot be honorably slighted. It cannot be denied that the taking of the management of the Provincial Hospital out of the hands of the Government and placing it in those of the people's committee is one of importance, and the election of that committee has not been satisfactory. The steps taken to this end were not as perfect as they might have been : but the committee elected are entitled to the support of the subscribers. It is much to be regretted that when the project of relieving the Government of the conduction of the Hospital was advanced the conditions on which individuals would be entitled to vote in the selection of office-bearers were not clearly defined-; and it is equally as much to be regretted that, at the very onset, any gentleman elected should have unseemingly forced forward an unworkable theory of retrenchment when it was patent that not one of the members of the committee could give a reliable opinion in the state of know-nothing-ness in which they then were. It was a mistake, a grave mistake, to call upon the subscribers to abandon the principle of a Eesident Surgeon before a scheme had been matured so perfect as to command support. No such scheme has yet been propounded ; and those gentlemen who opposed the proposal had sound and good reasons on their side. We do not believe that any gentleman who questioned the bull-at-the-gate system had any desire to cripple the action of the committee : they simply affirmed that a public hospital without a Eesident Surgeon would be an innovation upon existing practices that should not be made -wit-iim. calm irtTeßtigation. and matured judgment. It was not a question who should be the Eesident Surgeon. If it was found to be undesirable to retain the present officer, all would have approved the committee for dismissing him. It was the haste to obtain one particular object, at the risk of throwing the working of the institution into immediate confusion, of which they complained. The Hospital has passed from the Government to the public upon most liberal conditions. The committee enter upon • their labors under most favorable circumstances, and if they do not succeed in making it a popular and amply-supported J institution it wiil be a reproach to the Province. If this is to be accomplished all must work with one common zeal to j one solid end — success. Party-feeling must be destroyed, and all who desire to exercise influence in the conduction of the institution must learn to suppress the self-opinionated demonstrativeness which have so frequently disfigured the proceedings of public meetings, and destroyed the prospects the promoters of desirable and ennobling projects had entertained. It is, therefore, to be hoped that every man in the Province will do something towards supporting the Hospital— the chief of benevolent institutions,— an institution that knows no class, sect, or country ; and has but one aim, object, or creed — chaeitv.