The Evening Star FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1889.

Evening Star, Issue 7874, 5 April 1889, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1889.

IT was to bo expected that the Hospital Trustees would in Hospital sonie sor fc 0 f way make reply Reform. j) r BATCHELOR’S bill of indictment, and they have done so. Their reply is presumedly the combined product of many minds, and it must he pronounced a failure. Instead of boldly dealing with the _ general questions at issue, they cavil about little things, and, in _ many long, flowing periods, point triumphantly to small discrepancies of no particular consequence. And they make the grand mistake of confounding Dr Batchelor’s well-intended exposure of the deficiencies of the hospital with an attack on the Trustees. It is the institution, not its managers, that incurred the doctor’s censure. Indeed he was careful to say as much, and to repeat it more than once. Why, then, should the Trustees regard it as a personal affair 1 He admitted, what everyone must acknowledge, that they have discharged their duties to the very best of their ability, with infinite care, and much patient zeal. For the defects in the building, or the want of more suitable accommodation, they are not responsible. The building, erected for totally different purposes, is admittedly not very adaptable for hospital purposes ; but the Trustees have made the best of it that circumstances would allow. The funds- entrusted to them have been administered with considerable care and judgment. If the money at their command has been insufficient to make other and greater improvements, that surely cannot be accounted as a fault in them. Neither the public nor the Press are disposed to find fault with them for things they could not avoid. Dr Batchelor did not do so. Ho simply pointed out, in somewhat vigorous language, the existing deficiencies, and recommended the course that should be pursued. But in place of accepting his remarks in the spirit in which they appear to have been made, the Trustees resent bis advice with unreasonable anger, as a direct attack upon themselves. The is a disappointing document, in which the chief points in Dr Batchelor’s paper are either ignored altogether, or very slightly touched upon, and trifling matters of detail are enlarged upon with unnecessary prolixity and vehemence. If words could slay, the doctor ought to have been annihilated ; but fortunately, as the old proverb has it, “ Hard words break no bones,” and he will come up again smiling and prepared to do battle on behalf of hospital improvement. The citizens should feel gratified and grateful for the course he has pursued, if the Trustees would only regard it with unprejudiced eyes they would surely elect to work with him rather than against him. A strict inquiry on their part might do much to remove the present misunderstanding, but nothing whatever is to be gained by recrimination. If abuses do exist, or needful appliances for the use or treatment of the sick are wanting, it is the duty of the Trustees to rectify the one and provide the other. No doubt they will plead the lack of funds—this, in fact, constitutes the sole material defence set up in their recently adopted minute. But this is not altogether irremediable. Let them formulate their requirements fully, but always with a due regard to economy—or rather, the avoidance of extravagance —and there is little doubt that the money will be forthcoming. Public rates, aided by private benevolence and supplemented by Government subsidies, will do all that is required in the meantime. As to whether the building itself can be properly adapted to hospital purposes, that is, we confess, very doubtful. Perhaps the best, and in the end the most economical, course would be to sell it and the ground, and reerect a new hospital elsewhere. But this is too large a question to be dealt with at the tail of an article, and we fchoj'efore reserve it for future consideration. But, as a last word, we strongly urge the Trustees to lay their disputes all aside,” and endeavor to utilise the valuable advice given by Dr Batchelor.