S.C. HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2585, 23 November 1893, Page 3

S.C. HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

The monthly meeting' of the South lanterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Soard was held on. Tuesday. Present— Jessrs J. Jackson (chairman), W. M. ; loore, J. M. Barker, S. Gillingham, R. H. ( Rhodes, J. H. Graham, A. Sherratt, and r. Talbot. This being- the last meet in? of the preent board, the chairn an read the following j tatemerit in review of the past year : ! " Hospital—ln the twelve months ended Ist October we admitted 264 patients, and ;reated during the same period 165 outlabients; for each prescription dispensed i n the out-patients' department Is was ; barged, but only 5s was collected during he year. In-patients' payments are a ittle in advance of last year's. Improveaents: The Queen street boundary wall ,nd a shelter shed have been erected uring the year, and the outhouses have eceived a coat of paint. At the request f the medical staff £6O has been expended n surgical instruments, and a stock of ocally-made blankets has been purchased ,t a cost of £SO. Heating the wards and ither rooms by gas has been tried during he winter, and proved satisfactory in the female ward and smaller rooms, but in the nale ward, a much larger room, the fireilaces provided for heating, either by coal >r gas, are insufficient. The temperature :annot be raised and kept steady at the teight required by the medical staff. Last vinter, however, was exceptionally cold. '. would not therefore recommend at preent any alteration in the arrangements tow existing. The Gas Company have aade special terms in our favor for the upply of gaa to the hospital. There are mall improvements still to be made, such ,s fixing Tobin tubes in the fever wari, ,nd some asphalt to be put down here and here; these are neither urgent nor exit nsive, and have been allowed to remain n abeyance to be carried out by the house teward as circumstances permit. I merely neution them to show that they have not leen overlooked by the board. [With regard to the management and medical staff he statement referred to both as very satisactory.] Charitable Aid-During the winter nonths, as is usually the case, a very heavy [emand was made upon the board's esources arising from lack of employment, ickness, and bereavement. The system of ' .dministering relief has recently been Jtered to that of giving money value, and o far no complaint has been made. On he contrary, recipients express satisfaction irith the change. Instead of their simply •etting a ration of a few articles they can. ake their choice of 24 articles mention «d n the orders. During the year 37,370 ations were distributed among 804 families, i epresenting 2.514 persons, at a total cost of :600, of which. Timaru received fully one- < hird There are now in the ndustrial schools 18 children, 15 at Burnlam, and 3 at Nelson, and 42 boarded out. ?hese 60 children cost the board £S7I per ■ ,nnum. At present there are only 4 ihildren in the barracks. No case of ionfinement has occurred in the barracks [uring the year We find thes.e oases are m the decrease. During the year the ystem of the gjd. men cooking for themelyes has been abolished; the cooking is lone for them by the caretaker. The lommittee appointed by the board at its ast meeting duly met, and a» a result it vas decided that a, change should be made -that there, abpuhi he a man in charge. 3p,ns.efluently notice was given to the )resenl caretaker, and an advertisement >ublished inviting applications for the losition. The applications will be laid >efore you to-day. General--Daring the rear, through the insfei'umentality of the nember fo,r Timaru, Mr Hall-Jones, the lOard has received £ll6, as back payments )r subsidy on the Russell Trust, which the jovernment declined in the first place to illow. We have also, to thank Mr Halllones for securing for the board the (Id ip.spital reserve, the title to which is now ;o hand. Finance —The balance to the jredit of the board to-day ig £jyj.B : is iOd, md after paying to-day's, accounts there tvill remain £250 IJa 6d to hand over to 3nr successors;,"' Messrs Sherratt, Moore, and Talbot testified'to the efficient way in which the hospital and charitable aid business had been carried on during the year. Dr Lovegrove' attended to request the board to. consider t>he case of a youth named Heatjey, who had lost a leg below the knee. If supplied with a good false leg he could probably earn his own living in some way. —lt was agreeed to supply the leg. .Arnong the correspondence on hospital matters was a telegram from a civil 'servant now in Auckland, in reply to a demand for payment of an hospital account for, his father, who stated digchixged, he could not pay, The telegram was. "■ Fakhp* manages h.is'Q.wn'Affairs,' Kofehi»'" ' with, me," No time \q> w** o to do stated tiiaip tan ~- . u e."—it was e $ T W?g 's& **" "' - un is a single man titled +* 10s a week, and it wa3 de...at further inquiries be made into i,ne circnrastiinces of the farther, and if he is unable to pay, the son be again applied to. Another debtor to the hospital for £la 10s, a resident in the district, in employment at a good and assured salary, was mentioned. He had promised to pay off the debt at the rate of 10s per month, but _he had not yet paid a penny, the debt being now a year old.—lt was determined that payment be pressed for. Another debtor, a farmer, who promised to cleax off his debt by supplying- potatoes, had done nothing, and he had made over his property to trustees for his wife.—lt was decided to take the solicitors opinion on the validity of the trustg is against the claim on behalf of a child. Accounts were passed for paymentHospital, £l4O 16s lid j charitable aid £lOl 10s sd.

Mr Citron, chemist, Geraldine, sent a schedule of charges, which the house steward said were very reasonable. Application was made from the Geraldine district for admission to the Home of an old man of whom it was reported that he ha 1 made over some property to a son-in-law, on condition that they kept him for life. He was then expected to die soon, but in this he had disappointed them, and now they wanted to get rid of him.—Further enquiry to be made. Messrs Sherratt, Talbot and Moore, for the committee appointed to examine and report upon the improvement of the barracks, explained that they did not recommend any structural alterations ; but that one of the large rooms be used as a living and dining room and the other as a dormitory. A few improvements in the furnishing would make the place very comfortable for both men and women. The report was adopted with an expression of thanks to the committee. A code of rules for the guidance of the caretaker was adopted. The rule referring to admissions gave rise to a 'Hscussion, and it was finally decided that admissions of permanent inmates shall only be made upon orders signed by the chairman or secretary, for casual relief and shelter upon the order of any member of the board. The board went into committee to deal with the applications from married couples for the position of caretaker at the barracks. These were 24 in number. The board selected for the post James Young, at present caretaker of the Athletic Club's grounds. Votes of thanks were passed to the chairman, medical staff, and hospital Btaff, and the meeting terminated.

A Definition—Little Willy : " What's a sinecure, papa ?" His Father : " A sinecure, my son, is a position, that some one else puts you into, and for which you draw the salary while a third man does the work." A Pretty Safe Assertion.—Though the young ladies may organise a society to discuss Jsuch questions as What is real philanthropy 1" and " What are the leading social problems of the day 1 " yet, when the meetings adjourn, it is safe to wager that the all-important question will be, " Is my hat on straight ? " One of the rising a&tronomers of Europe is a young American lady, Miss Klumpke by name, and only twenty-four years of age, who has one of the great equatorials of Paris Observatory under her exclusive control, and was one of the first to discover the comet of 1892. She has taken the degree of Doctor of Science, and belongs to a gifted family. One of her sisters, a Doctor of Medicine, is the wife of Dr Dejerine, and is the most popular female practitioner in Paris ; and another is distinguished as a miniature painter.