ALLEGED LIBEL

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 12

ALLEGED LIBEL

WAIHI HOSPITAL CASE

(By Telegraph—Press* Association^)

AUCKLAND, This Day.

Giving evidence in • the Supreme Court today in the continuation of the claim by Isabella Jane Paddock, former matron of the Waihi Hospital, against Dr. Archibald Jenkins, its medical superintendent/for £475 for -alleged libel and slander, Fred Raddings, a member of the Waihi Hospital Board up to the jtime the control of the institution was Vested in the Thames Hospital Board, said that at the Surf Club's ball Dr. Jenkins, Mrs. Paddock, and two sisters from the hospital were present at different times. The witness remembered Dr. Jenkins telling the board he was very satisfied with the way the matron and staff were conducting the hospital. It was after this that the doctor began to complain about the matron.; The doctor caused a lot of trouble' with members of the board, and they understood that the two sisters Black were doing a lot of the work of the matron and that the doctor would not give the ■matron orders. The witness sajd that the doctor's behaviour towards the matron was not what it should have been from the medical superintendent to the matron and'the witness had told him he would have to 'alter his tactics. ■'.*■■■■■■

The witness- had -voted against the board's resolution expressing appreciation of the work of the matron, among others, at the hospital. He did this because her appointment had not been approved by the ■ Minister of Health. ',

The case is proceeding.

Continuing her evidence which had been interrupted to enable two other witnesses to be called the plaintiff said that when she was appointed matron the trained staff at the hospital was, practically a new staff. The witness mentioned an occasion when Dr. Jenkins told her she knew nothing gbout nursing and that he did not want her to accompany him round the wards. The witness mentioned • charges brought" against her by the doctor, which charges she said were without foundation.