RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 78, 1 April 1905, Page 12

RANDOM SHOTS

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Borne write a neighbour's name to lash; Some write — vain thought — for needful cash. Some write to please the country clash, And raise a din. For mc, an aim I never fash— I write for fun. I am an ardent advocate of education, but I can't help feeling that in this colony we sometimes allow our enthusiasm for it to run a little to excess. There was that case up the harbour the other day—two men lined because they had not sent ttieir children to school. The evidence would have been really amusing if it had not been somewhat tragic. These hapless parents explained that they lived on the wrong side of a creek from the school, and that the stream was in Hood, and a benevolent Government had spent in Central Otago or Westland the money that ought to have gone to build a bridge for them; really I am sorry to see that the last sentence is a quotation from Mr -Vlas- . sey's speech, but let it pass. Well, the parents went on to inform the Bench that the only way that the children could get across the creek was by means of a boat; and in the first place there warn't any Doat; and, • secondly, if there had been, the lathers would have had to leave their work and put in some considerable time in rowing their offspring over the river to and from the school. Under the circumstances, as time means money to everybody but a Department, the parents naturally enough decided that their children could not go to school. But the vigilant officials of the Education Board refused to accept any such "frivolous excuse, and haled them before the majesty of the law to answer for their misdeeVls. The Bench seems to have been troubled with some not unreasonable doubts as to the merits of the.case, but finally decided against the fathers, who were duly fined, and possibly went away overwhelmed by . a proper sense of their own iniquities. But if I were a father who had to choose between going to Court and paying a fine or putting in the best part of a day pulling a boat over the creek to get the children to school, I should be inclined to wonder if education was not beginning to be a little overdone in this country. / •^■i'•_•**•fr'S•'i■•i•'-• Another club-swinging record established! I don't wish to encourage feelings of envy in the breasts of my readers, but that is the plain unvarnished fact. And the next aspirant can only achieve fame by carrying on this enthralling occupation for 47 hours and such additional fraction of a second as shall make his advance upon this record! Eorty-scven hours! The craziest (1 mean most- patient) of anglers, the "most persistent of artists on the triplebob, major, the most dilatory of chess.players —all these people sink into insignificance in comparison with this "-"' hero of the Indian clubs. Yet strange as it may seem, I am not sorry not to be that man. In the first place, 47 hours is very nearly two days; two days is decidedly' an appreciable length of ,time; and I have something better to do with it than to carry out extremely monotonous and still more extremely exercises with heavy pieces of wood. Secondly, I have not yet been informed ol the good that is supposed to accrue cither to the "swinger" or his friends. Lastly, my insanity has been hinted at. but never proved. If that lunatic in tho picture in "Punch" wanted the angler who had been fishing all day "to come in there," what would he have I had to say to the gentleman who was ! ' still swinging clubs at the end of 47 hours? I imagine the invitation would bo more pressing. *_?*_* *l**l*-*l*-*li M _*'"l'*—"&' A thing that has been greatly born in on mc of late is the fact that I am , supposed to admire the Australian "sticker-up" as a hero whose glories are but slightly tarnished by his crimes; that no one but the most unqualified Puritan should venture to attack the social status of this highly-placed personage ; and that the police in venturing politely to interrupt the game of these, admirable desperadoes have sunk to the lowest depths of degradation. Half of the papers head the news of the crimes of these people in an entirely ' clifTerent way to ■ those of any other '■ human Pariah; while they have but to appear upon the stage in order to be the hero of five dreary acts of nielodramaA hideously revolting crime, in which an innocent man was battered to death, "last Friday was headed in a contemporary as "A Eatal Sticking-up Case," indicating in gentle and inoffensive language that the very natural proceedings of the "sticker-up" had unfortunately terminated fatally. My readers will not fail to remember another instance of this extraordinary attitude at the time -of the Keimiffs, wdien some hundreds of wreaths were sent to the funeral (the -happy release having been accorded by the State) of two of the blackest villains that ever trod this unhappy earth. One may assume, then, that if a good many people really endeavoured to reacji their highest ambition the office of hangman would be so remunerative as to .almost create a counter-attraction. _•*■£ _>_."_.-_•_-.- It is worthy oE notice that tho New South Wales Chief Secretary is not in favour of the salcVof liquor during prohibited hours uponl a doctor's prescription. In fact, he went so far as to state that the was "afraid '\ of 1 such a proposal. Precisely what he was afraid of he did not say: it might havfe been the difficulty a frolicsome barmaid would have over "recipe," or "viai Hokiangae," or the symbols of quantities, orithe other tenus of a prescription; it might have been that he was afraid of a) sudden rise in the number of either doctors or patients ~*r both; it might have befen that he was lftpkkig to the remote possibility that •?° m ? *kthe liquor sold at\ a public.bar would bS>w far enough ftom the most .absolute mitigate against its shall decide? 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not venture an opinion. But that case from Waihi will at least convince people that there are two sides to the question. ■ And this, apart from the cases known to us privately, in which the doctor . has fallen back upon champagne in a case of critical illness as almost, tbe last resort. We may be "afraid," like the New South Wales Minister; but let us also meet, fairly and impartially, the demands of a proper degree of humanity. -i--M"*i"'l-'M"i , *M' / Of all the callings to which a respectable man can turn his hand, that of a beggar really does seem to be the most- remunerative, compatible with comfort arid a maximum of ease. I read in one of the Southern papers that two foreign gentlemen presented themselves in Hamilton recently- and caDed forth the pity of every tender-hearted person, they encountered by their sad and dejected appearance, and the piteous storI ies of woe which they told with an air of conviction that placed their integrity above the breath of a suspicion. The remarkable circumstance was, however, brought to light that their hunger seemed only to increase with repeated Jaeals, and the number of their misfortunes to redouble as they raked in the money so necessary to their relief and—(shall I say?) the provision of necessary comforts. Anyhow, the two of them made £12 in a, week; only one of them is in gaol; and Aye may reasonably suppose that tho treasurer of the partnership is not that one. Altogether this appears to be a most attractive calling, and one to which our educators might devote their most earnest, attention". 4"i"j-*i"i"i"i"W"i* What is the law* or the convention or the rule of etiquette that is supposed to regulate the conduct of medical men'when they are called upon in a sudden emergency? What I wans lo know is this—is a doctor within his legal or moral or professional rights if, supposing he is asked to treat a '•'ease" that, requires medical and surgical aid, he refuses to respond? Of course, 1 can imagine circumstances in which a doctor might hesitate about interfering with another man's practice; but 1 am thinking, for example, of' an accident, which requires speedy treatment. 1 heard of a case this week in which a man who had aeeidentally broken at least one bone in his lorearm tried four doctors in succession in vain, and finally got the. help he required from the fifth. I don't know much about the facts of this particular case, but, this is not hy any means the first time that I have heard of people who have had great difficulty in securing medical assistance, and especially at night. I must say it seems almost incredible to mc that men able to relieve pain would allow themseives to be prevented from doing so by airytrivial convention; and I don't think So badly of the members of the medical profession as to imagine that they are as a class indifferent to human suffering. Still, Avhat is one to think? Why-should a man with a broken arm have to wander about asking help from four doctors in succession in vain? It seems to nic that there is something radically wrong with the status of the profession if this is possible. I have a great admiration for doctors as a class; but some, of them apparently foTget that they arc under a serious obligation 'toward the general public. It is for our saxes, not for theirs, that we. have passed laws that secure them a monopoly of their professional work: and they seem occasionally to need reminding that they form a close corporation by themselves only on public sufferance. It is the much-enduring public that they have to thank for the chance of charging their highly remunerative fees; and if they fail to display a proper sense of their duty towards us, I would not be surprised to see very important changes made in the. laws relating to the practice, of medicine and surgery. Of course, I know a lot of very nice doctors, and they know I am not talking about them—but the tale, of the young man with the broken arm and the. fifth doctor has to some extent preyed upon my mind.