Correspondence. MEDICAL COMFORTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 366, 20 June 1874, Page 3

Correspondence. MEDICAL COMFORTS.

(To the Editor) Si*,— l beg to hand you the following information regarding the expenditure at the Dunedin Hospital for the 12 months ending March 31st, 1874 :— Daily average number of resident patient* during the year • • 140J , Daily average cost per Expended on Fro- patient. visions - - • £1449 2 2 - 6£d. Wines, spirits, beer, Ac. - - 363 610 do. -1R Drugs, £196 6s. lid. ; Instruments, £2 4s. 201 10 1 do. - Id. (nearly) Daily avenge cost per patient for salaries, provisions, medical comforts, stores, furniture, fuel and light, bedding, clothing, and incidental expenses ..... 23£ d. N.B. — The out patients (numbering about 12,000 visit* during the year), the Dunedin Gaol, Lunatic Asylum, and Industrial School are all supplied with medicine from the Hospital Dispensary. Yon may rely on the above statement as being correct, as it has been obtained from an official source. I think if the accounts of our local Hospital were kept in better order than at present, it would be more satisfactory to all concerned, and I think in a public institution such as it is, supported largely by voluntary contributions, every subscriber has a right to know how every penny has been expended. — I am. &c., Subsoeibbe. CAPITAL AND LABOR. {To the Editor.) Sib, — The misconceptions of the relative positions of capital and labor, which at home has become the source of most serious differences between the laborers and their employers, and has led to bo many strikes, most detrimental to business, apparently is characteristic of our age. It is, however, an error more on the side of the capitalists than on the ■ide of the laboring classes. The capitalist of our age i» too much accustomed to consider himself as maipter of his social position ; he is toomuch inclined to look upon himself as lord of all creation, perfectly independent of the middle clasßes, upon whom he looks down in his ostentatious pride, — pride which is the more despicable, as it arises from a total misconception of public affairs in general. Fully aware of the numerous advantages open to him by the possession of the golden key, which only too often opens the gates to position and power, the capitalist feels satisfied in the conviction that he owns the talisman which will not only conquer all obstacles in his way, but also subjugate his fellow countrymen under his sway. To him capital is the stepping-stone to the gratification of his passions, may they be ambitions or otherwise, and should this one object of his life jar with the public interests, these even must be sacrificed for him, and the public, in his opinion, must waive their most primitive rights, should they in their presumptuousness dare to refuse to- bow down in adoratiom to the golden calf that he has raised for himself as his life's idol. Thus, by giving himself up to the pleasures afforded to him by his position, he day by day becomes more unwilling and lesa fit for the fulfilment of the duties it imposes upon him. Capital is the means to make a nation flourish ; money the medium by which people are raised out of the sludge and drudgery of demi-civili-sation. In the hands of the honorable man it is used as the grand lever to lift his fellow creatures up to a position from which they would be debarred had he not laid out bis capital in employing them : and the satisfaction to a capitalist of having thus contributed to the welfare of the community at large should be a greater reward than all perishable honors. If employed in circulation, capital is the, boon of all mankind — a boon which, like a circulating stream, will run its never-ending course through the vast desert of society, fertilising every spot it touches, and then returning to its source, to start afresh with new life-giving power, shedding a ray of sunshine npom him who. gives and him who receives. But capital unemployed, or selfishly used, is a dead and weighty stone tied round its possessor's neck, pressing him down ; down into the grave of oblivion, unregretted, uncared for, nnremembered by a single one of his fellow countrymen. Were the capitalists of our age by their actions to show to the world that thejr have come to the conviction that the laboring classes wereindispensableto them, for their well-being both private and social, that in fact one class could not exist without the other, they would, instead of wasting time, strength, and money upon the unnecessary aggrandisement ef their power, or gratification of their frivolous passions, employ the treasures Providence has bestowed them in employing labor at a rate remuterative to the laboring classes. Instead of grasping every acre of ground within their reach, for the" sake of becoming lords and masters of the soil in a young'and rising country, they would employ their surplus capital in improving what they already possess in such a way as to insure a remunerative field of industry for the laboring classes around them. A field not only remunerative to those employed, but also far more remunerative to themselves than the investments in ground they at present seem to be so very fond of, and which can not he called anything but the burying of their capital in the «oil. Why should capitalists in this young country not follow the example of other nations, where areas of land larger than all this province are in possession of one party ? Why should they not subdivide their estates into smaller farms, say of 700 to 800 acres each, and let them to the less favored portion of the community, thus giving them also' a chance of acquiring flourishing homesteads, and thus securing both inhabitants and cultivation to the country ? But on this subject more in another letter. — I am, &0., Anti-Shah.

Teetotalisjc and Typhiod Fbvjbr. — In reporting upon his district, theßuninyong correspondent of the " Ballarat Courier " says :—"ln: — "In making my round to-day to ascertain the names pf the several persons suffering from typhoid, I was surprised to find that every patient; was a 'teetotaler ;' and, from my knowledge of the parties, I can say that they have most conscientiously observed the obligations of their order. " Without placing any stress on the statement, the circumstance is somewhat remarkable.

Tho San Francisco "Bulletin" says: — "There ar» 2,000 or 3,000 outlaws in the mountains of California, who live by robbery and violence. They occasionally make a raid on tome village, and strip it of valuables. They are quite secure from arrest in their mountain fastnwses. - In Paris it is a common practice to brgin children affected with the whooping-cough to a gat factory to respire the air there. Dr. Maasola hat shown that, it is the. infusoria in the atmosphere that causes the paroxysm, »nd by taking prepared carbolic acid jujubes the spasms in the second stage of the congh are completely allayed. Carrier pigeon* are largely used by Parisian periodicals, for, carrying the lat- • est intelligence. They start from Versailles from two o'clock in the afternoon till three. The average number is- thirty pein and the charge 4* each pair. The journey is aooomplished in twelve minutes wten logs are not frequent. It is not 'legal for newspaper editon to hire a wire for their own ppiiaJipjUML hence the ne.oeMMyteifti^^^r 7 . ..".