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Bruce Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 1209, 4 June 1880, Page 3

If our readers will peruse our report, in another column, of the last meeting of the Bruce County Council, they will tind the copy of a letter received from the Colonial Secretary's ofiice, wherein the Hon. Mr Dick, through a third-rate official, declines to recognise the demand of this

County to support the Tuapeka Hospital, instead of the sister institution in Dunedin. Now, we have no wish to question the veracity of a portion of the * contents of that letter, but we should nevertheless like to have the privilege of the perusal of the list enumerating the 25 patients who were treated in Dunedin for the year endin** 31st March last, and who have been described in fche report issued by the authorities of the Dunedin Hospital, as having hailed from the County of Bruce. We have no very great confidence in the geographical knowledge of the general run of officials in either hospitals or other charitable institutions ; nor is it at all au unfrequent occurrence that the patients themselves are unable to tell, with certainty, whether the locality they came from belongs to the County of Bruce, Olutha, or Tuapeka, nofc being sufficiently acquainted with the respective boundaries. We are firmly convinced tbat no such number of patients ever went from our County to the Dunedin Hospital during the year mentioned. But, be that as it may, the letter quoted is altogether out of order, if not arbitrary, and is simply an evasive reply to the one sent. Nothing can be more plain than the expressed desire of our County Council to transfer their support to the Tuapeka Hospital, and to pay for any patients who hail from the County and who are desirous of being sent to Dunedin. No offer could be fairer than this, and no proposition less objectionable. Why, then, should we be forcibly debarred from patronizing an institution wliich is not only 12 miles nearer to us, but is also less crowded and far more favorably siUiated, speaking from a sanitary point of view. We trust that our County Councillors will take this matter into serious consideration at their nexo meeting, and will use their utmesfc endeavours to enable them to keep faith with the preliminary agreement entered into with Tuapeka. We feel sure that the Member for Bruce would prove a good assistant in this matter, if his services were called into requisition. It is evident thafc there is either a mistake in the returns of patients, or a wilful misunderstanding, by some official, of the terms contained in the letter sent by the Chairman of our County.