OLD FOLKS AT THE HOME

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 111, 18 August 1910, Page 3

OLD FOLKS AT THE HOME

TBEIiR WORK AND THEDR WHISKY,

Ipon tlie chairman reporting yesterday to the Hospital Board on the circumstances connected with the recent assault 'W one inmate upon another at the Old People's Home, _ Mr. Reynolds said that he had noticed, in the newspaper .report of the subsequent Court proceedings, that the man Allen, who was in receipt of the Imperial and old age pensions, bad objected to perform menial duties in the home, such as cleaning out lavatories. In the circumstances, he believed the old man had been right, and expressed the opinion that these duties might well be confined to those men who were wholly indigent, and who were not paying a single penny' towards the cost of their maintenance. •Mr. McDonald supported Mr. Mcßeynolds in this view. The chairman said] that the members and the public must not get hold of the idea that this was a boarding-house, for it was not. It was not a .home for people who could pay their way. Neither 'was it a place where distinctions were drawn. The medical officer had supplied him with a list of inmates who were able to do light work, and, as it was beneficial to their health, this light work was made compulsory and general. It was owing to distinctions in the past that trouble had arisen. '.', Members of the Board generally concurred in the chairman's remarks.

Mr Mcßeynolds, continuing his remarks upon the evidence given in the case, referred to the statement by the porter that he was in the habit of going round at 7 o'clock each evening and serving out whisky to the inmates. Ratepayers had been very much surprised to leara this, .and, for his own part, he considered tnat any inmate who required whisky should be a hospital patient. The chairman said that the whisky was served out only on the doctor's orders* The matron would never take the j responsibility of serving whisky herself. Mr. Mcßeynolds took up the attitude that a man who was ordered whisky at I that time of life was ordained by the Lord soon to cease his labors here. The chairman said that (there were only certain inmates, with certain afflictions, that the doctor ordered whisky for.

Mr. Meßeynolds said he had heard the same thing many times in his lifetime of sixty years; but he .had been very cold, very hot, and sometimes' short of rations. Whisky might have stimulated him, but he had managed l quite well without it. He didn't grudge the expense, hut only objected to the principle. To the public it looked strange that these old men were- regularly supplied with spirits. The chairman: Only for medicinal purposes. It comes to this; If the Doctor orders,whisky, are we to refuse it ? Who knew best? As far as he (Mr. Bellringer) was concerned, he didn't know whether the whisky did the old ohaps any good, and didn't know the taste of it, either.

The .secretary said he could assure the Boa;rd that the whisky did the old men a lot of good; and they only received an ounce.

Mr. Meßeynolds said 'that might be so, but he,objected to the principle. It jvas awkward when a ratepayer "stuck up" a member and said!, "We've got to pay rates to keep these old chaps going in whisky every night." Mr. Andrews said ratepayers had remarked to him that "the Home isn't a bad place." Mr. Bellfinger: It isn't a bad place, either.