The Westport Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 540, 7 August 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1869.

There are probably, in the political and Native items of the week's intelligence, sufficient and suggestive subjects of comment, but we imagine that, for all present purposes, these have been amply exhausted in the three lengthy letters which have, during the week, been contributed by our correspondent at Wellington. Under the circumstances, local institutions may, in this column, receive some notice ; and, imagining the question to be put as to which of these institutions is most deserving of such notice, we should decidedly say the Hospital. It is most deserving of notice because—as some of our Milesian friends might suggest —it is the only local institution that absolutely exists, such compromises as Progress and Separation Committees may be said to constitute having apparently, for the present, if not for all time, dissolved " like the baseless fabrics of a vision." But it deserves notice also on some substantial grounds, and one of these grounds is the evidently unequal interest which is taken in its affairs — more especially its financial affairs—by the different classes of the very few classes of which this community may be said to consist. "We shall go as far as to say that it deserves notice especially on account of the comparatively indifferent interest which is taken in this particular item of its affairs by those who are really to a great extent the benefited class of the community —the miners.

At the time of the publication of the Committee's annual report we took the liberty of suggesting that there was, for the miners, a " moral " to read in the figures which the Treasurer there presented ; and it is upon these figures more particularly that we now desire to assist our mining readers in this wholesome process of moralizing. The statements and the figures referred to are contained in the following brief but suggestive extracts from the Committee's report:— From the report of the Medical Officer it will be observed that 98 patients have received indoor treatment. Of this number, Westport represents 19, Addison's IS, Caledonian 41, Upper Buller LI, Mokihinui 2, and from outside the district 4, the average number of days of treatment for each patient being 27. The average weekly cost of each patient, including the permanent charge for building, amounts to £2 lis. It is, therefore, apparent that Westport's charge on the funds of the Hospital reaches an approximate amount of £164 13s, Addison's that of £179 4s Gd, the Caledoninn £372 Gs 3d, the Upper Buller £133, Mokihinui £SO 8s 9d, and from outside the district £69 4s, or in other words Westport's proportion for the cost of its patients is £76 Is 9d less than subscriptions, whilst, on the other hand, Addison's exceeds its subscriptions by £IS 15s, and the Caledonian £221 15s. The Treasurer has omitted from this comparative statement the figures relating to the Upper Buller, and these we supply for him, and for " whomsoever it may concern." The contributions from the Upper Buller amounted during the year to £3 2s, and the cost of the proportion of the patients it supplied was, as we are told, £133.

We are not aware what are the relative positions of the different places with regard to the subscriptions for the present year, but 'are somewhat suspicious that any comparative statement which the Treasurer might produce would not materially differ, in its points of comparison, from that which is printed above. "We shall, indeed, be bold enough to take this for granted. Now, do these positions at all represent the relations in which the different mining districts should stand towards the Hospital ? Leaving out of account altogether the scarcely creditable circumstance that the institution is taken advantage of to some extent—though to what extent it must always be hard to say —by persons able but unwilling to bear some of the cost entailed upon them by the misfortune of illness, is there not reason for the miners taking just a shade more interest in an institution in the use of which it is, unfortunately and inevitably, their fate principally to partici-

pate ? Is it not an anomaly that the mixed community of the town, containing as it does some proportion of poor and improvident, as well as the probahly fictitious element of "affluence,"should,inthis particular, present a contrast so unfavorable to the reputation for liberality,even to extravagance, which the miners usually enjoy ? In the interest, especially, of the good repute of our " Caledonian " friends, are we not fairly justified in asking—- " Stands Scotland where it did ?" Eeally, to go on " pointing morals " on the subject is a very unsatisfactory, and, we shall hope, unnecessary proceeding. "We trust to be acquitted of any levity in the introduction here of a humble " happy thought " —that the best " point " we can come to on the subject is a " full stop," leaving it to the miners to adorn, by the liberality of their subscriptions, the tale which the Treasurer of the Hospital will have to tell in the next Annual lieport.