HOSPITAL MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1916, Page 8

HOSPITAL MATTERS.

To tlie Editor. Sir, —T am glad you gave tlie chairman of the Hospital Board an opportunity of seeing iny lutte:', before publishing it, so that mv question and his- answer were put before the public simultaneously. The chairman admits the irregularity of which 1 wrote, but savs it was (lone in the interest of the ratepayers, who benefited thereby; in other .words, lie admits he did evi'l that good might came. It was only to be expected lie would make this claim, and I do not question that he acted with the best of intentions, but 1 whether his action was really in tlie best interests of the ratepayers is a debatable subject on which there may easily be a great difference of opinion, and Mr. Bellringer has advanced nothing beyond his own statement that it was so. What was the position? The Board wanted a quantity of blankets, about 200 pairs. A approaches the chairman, or the chairman approaches him, and offers to supply at a given price. Ais not a manufacturer of these goods, but has to purchase them from B, who is. But C, D, 15 and Fin similar businesses to A could also have I purchased them from B. Tliey might have wanted move proflt than A. or they might have been content with less, but, in any case, they never had a chance, Tlie order was given right awav to A without any competition, and several • days, if not several weeks, before the other traders in the town knew what goods were wanted, and before any speeifications \ycre published or available, And a further point is this, t iat when at last the tenders for the remaining articles of drapery were opened, A was not in it, but was under-cut by C, 0 or E. That the eha irman's action was approved by the Board I can quite believe, but that proves nothing. That it was in the interests of the ratepayers is quite another matter, .which yet remains to be proved. In any case, the Act of Parliament was ignored, and the law broken, and if this can be done in the . case of blankets, why should it not be done in the case of sheetings, towels, dressing gowns and other things? Where is the line to be drawn? Returning to the nurses' petition and the withdrawal of some of the signatures irom it, this withdrawal was oblained by what 1 hesitate to describe as brow-boating, but I know no other word that crimes so near to a true description of it. The enquiry .was certainly not conducted in tlie quiet and judicial way in which it should have been, and the petitioners were in some instances treated with but scant consideration. Take, for instance, the matter of the insufficient lighting of the steps. One of the nurses said, on being questioned, I that she had through the darkness fallen and hurt herself, and was immediately asked by a member what brand of tea slie had been drinking! Such an insinuation might pass for a joke amongst men meeting on an equality, but was grossly Out of place in such an enquiry, for vhile the victim no doubt felt the sting ilie was debarred of opportunity to properly retaliate. There are other matters vet which want ventilating, but they must stand over for the moment.—l am, etc, VIATOR.