ALLEGED LIBEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1938, Page 7

ALLEGED LIBEL

THE WAIHI HOSPITAL CASE. HEARING OF EVIDENCE ENDS. By Telegraph—Press Association, AUCKLAND, April 8. The hearing of' evidence concluded today in the case in which Isabella Jane Paddock, formerly matron of the Waihi Hospital, is suing Dr Archibald Jenkins, medical superintendent of the hospital, for £475 for alleged libel and slander.

Alfred Johnson a member of the Waihi Hospital Board from 1932, gave evidence touching many complaints with which the board had dealt and to which the doctor and matron were parties. Witnesses said there had been a good many complaints concerning the matron. The board, before appointing Mrs Paddock, had difficulty in obtaining a matron for the institution. Dr Herbert Hutson, qualified medical practitioner, said he was appointed to Waihi Hospital in June last. He did not think the matron was up-to-date in her work and he had not seen her assist in the operating theatre. He was present when Dr Jenkins told the matron to prepare an atrophine solution. He instructed her to take one per cent of atrophine and dilute in it three parts of water, making a one-quarter per cent, solution. He afterward saw a bottle labelled four per cent. A four per cent solution was highly dangerous, as the matron should have known. The court adjourned until Monday.