The Cottage Hospital

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4421, 8 June 1909, Page 3

The Cottage Hospital

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Mr John Williams’ Irish Paddy seems to rise and fall in a most convenient manner, un and down like a geyser. I suppose Mr Williams will not deny .abusing this "self same Government in a letter written in the local press a few years ago, if this epistle lias slipped his memory, (as' his letter of Ist inst., would lead us to believe) let me tell him, it is still fresh and green in the memory of many residents of Te Arolia to-day. lie states that the Kiosk is the most popular building in our Sanatorium grounds, this statement I deny ; ask the public, whether the baths or Kiosk to be done away with at once, and I say the answer would he with one voice, away with the useless Kiosk. As for its i being a long felt want, the public of j Te Aroha never asked for it and did not | want it, it only t ikes during the summer months, the money of the tourist, which, were it .not for the Kiosk, would , circulate through To Arolia'and help the j people to pay the faxes which the I Government require to be paid, whether they set up opposition in certain lines or not. It reminds one of the story of the children of Israel in Egypt. Pharaoh refused straw fer making bricks but would not diminish (lie number required to be-made daily. Our Government require taxes but erect tea-houses, which take the money away from the individuals who got their living and collect ihe amount tor paying their taxes from this particular line, or with the help of this particular line. What did Pharaoli care ? Wliat does our Government care? I fancy if the Government worn to build ' a shop opposite Mr John Williams’ and sell glassware, dinnersets, books, and all the hundred and one things we see daily for sale in the windows of that gentleman’s shop, that J. W. would sing a very different song to his present one. As to the people of Te Arolia, looking forward to a Government Sanatorium, being erected here, I don’t believe Mr Wi liams can give ns the names of five residents of Te A'oka who want such a place built. llow coidd a Sanatorium run on the same linos as at Eotoiua benefit Te Aiolia. Patients going to Rotorua Sanatorium are not financially well-off and have not money to spend in the town ; and looking at the Sanatorium from a Christian point of view it is certainly bad, as one of the regulations states words to the effect, j that only when beds are not required by ] paying patients can they be given to the \ poor man who cannot afford to pay, so ’ you see, even pur Democratic Government, kicks the..poor man and bows to Iran who has a little hoof. Then again, I suppose Mr Williams has heard of the case of the’ late Mr Biehard Seddon which happened at Government Sanatorium at Rotorua, a more disgraceful ca‘o never happened in anv civilized country ; yet Mr Williams would let us run the risk c f such another thing happening here. When the movement for a hrspital at Hamilton was first 'started, Auckland [ where the Head Hospital then v as) did not like the idea, but as the populition increased in Waikato the want of a hospital was seen, and eventually one was greeted and Te Aroha and the districts immediately round "vio placed under the Waikato .Hospital Board. To-day exactly the same thing is happening fn Te Aroha and ' ihese districts, namely, people arc laki,ng up the land and the population is increasing by leaps and bounds. Tho land agei ts, who a short time ago got round in their traps, now fly round in motors, and'oven then, have- little or no spare time—and as a country increases in population so proportionately must its ! hospital area decrease, and hospitals and hospital accommodation, increase, and this applies to us here. What was not ’ too large 1 (owing to a small, and scattered popn.la.ti> m) ten years ago for a hospital district, to-day (owing to the land b. ing taken up) is. I have nothing to ~ay against tho Waikato Hospital, or its management, both are I understand up-to-date, What we all object to is, (air sick from here and surrounding districts, having to undergo-such a long journey and infectious cases having to mix un with the public, on route to the Waikato Hospital. Only a few weeks ago a lady was taken by train to the hospital, no one seemed to know what loally tlio matter, tlie case turned out to be scarlatina, and to-day I ask, where is the carriage in which she travelled, perhaps at Wellington, per- 1 ; Imps at Auckland, spreading its ■ saarlalina germs far and wide. Mr ' Williams considers our proposals, that . u Cottage Hospital bo erected here under the management of the Waikato Hospital Board, a most unfair one, why unfair or unjust, no one but himself I can say. Te Aroha and the districts 'i | immediately surrounding it, pay, | roughly, about (v.lt’a Government subj sidy) £1,012 to the Waikato Hospital, ;we do not ask the Board to put •up a Cottage Hospital at their expense. No, for this purpose our ’ member, Mr Hen lea, is asking Pnrfia- . mcut for a grant of £2(>i)() lids” amount to be handed to tho Waikato Hospitil i Board, tor the erection of a cottage hospital here. I have a letter from a doctor j who is willing to take charge for £10() (the appointment wou’d rest with the i W.IT. Board) per annum, if he is allowed f private practice. That leaves £912 cut of. our £lOl2 paid by Te Aroha and districts ; say for other expenses per annum (patients pay for beds, medicine, etc.) £(500,' this would still leave roughly £•'3l2 for the Waikato Hospital to retain ; for interest on any buildings- they may have erected for accommodation for parienta from this part of the district. t Take the amount of ca; ital used for outplay in building at £900(1, we would be paying a little over a per cent., which, as ; things go at pie,sent is very good. Ho what Mr Williams has to grumble about I cannot see. The Government used £-'3OO, which was voted by Parliament for an emergency ward here, in the purchase of a cottage and a niece of land, which they -have rented ‘out for i)s a week. I suppose Mr Williams calls this j fair play, and would back ihe Gowrn- | merit up in underhand work of this kind. j —I am, eto v ,

A. E, W. Lyoxs-Moxtgojirry