The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3534, 4 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1882.

In the matter of the Hospital it would seem tbat if that institution were left to the tender care of a paternal Government it would coon fail to fulfil the demands upon it. The Colonial Treasurer, having no pretensions to the lofty claim of a Heaven-horn statesman, must be regarded in the light of a simple human being. Most human beings have individual weaknesses; Major Atkinson has his. A disease called kleptomania when discovered in an otherwise respectable female, but which is generally known to the police by a less euphonious term when applied to the common order of humanity, appears to have its phase in the person of the Major. He does not steal, but he has an irrepressible desire to meddle with the affairs of local institutions, and from this meddling the Government somehow always get a little the best of it. Now with respect to our Hospital. We built it; it may be said that we endowed it; we have maintained it; and we are proud at what we have done. We recaguised it as a duty encumbent upon all communities to provide for its sick, and we trusted tbat in doing what we did we were setting a good

example to othtg. Unfortunately other communities w» e not actuated by the same self-relian> desire to perform a | public duty, and a opening was thereby offered for Majoi Atkinson to step in. It was an opportunty that he could not allow to pass. It ccurred to him that if the G-ovemmem were to uodertake the maintenance of ogpitals that all the properties belonging to them would naturally fall into the lands of the State. Parliament agreed to he suggestion because it promised to relive the people of what after all is a form cf taxation. Like most theories, however, n its practice, expectation has been disappointed. Either we did not understand whit the Colonial Treasurer meant to do, or he did not realise what would be required of him in carrying out his new scheme. In the case of Wellington our telegrams stated some days ago that the Government had resolved to take over the whole maintenance and management of the Hospital there. This arrangement might answer well enough there, because the eye of authority would be always on the institution. But it would not do here. It would appear tbat if anything is wanted to be done at our Hospital the people have to subscribe for the purpose. And no one would object to do so were it not for the belief that our treatment in this respect is not what is meted out to others. At the meeting of the Hospital Committee yesterday tenders were received for the erection of the much-needed new wing, but not one could be accepted for the sufficient reason that there is no money to build. In our advertising columns there is an appeal to the public to subscribe to the hospital funds, and we are sure that it would not be made unless subscriptions were urgently needed. Now we notice that the Committee has instructed its secretary to write to the clergy inviting them to hold a Hospital Sunday on behalf ot the building fund. And so it goes on. We are no better off than before Major Atkinson's benevolent scheme was propounded. In fact we are worse off, because we knew what we were about then, but we don't now. It is to be hoped that the meddling policy of the Ministry will not have the effect impairing the usefulness of the Hospital by inducing the people to believe that the support of the institution is a Government and not a public concern.