Hospital Sunday.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8142, 16 November 1905, Page 5

Hospital Sunday.

(To the Editor),

Sic, —I was glad too see that Mr Harper had far too much commonsonse to take auy notice of. Mr Bagnall's letter that appeared in your paper ou the 13th lust. I don't think anyone else would take much notice of" the letter, but after the second effusion that you have published from Mr Bagnallin to-night's paper I felt I must write a few lines, not in any way to discuss the matter of the Hospital Sunday with Mr Bagnall, but merely to enlighten him on an' impor ant fact of,which lie must be iii absolute ignorance or he could not have written as he has done, so plainly imputing a complete want of sympathy and. feeling ou iir Harper's part with the " sick and poor." This is tkc fact, and I write from absolute knowledge, that nobody works harder for the sick and poor (and sorrowful, as well), no one is more ready to give himself up unreservedly at any hour of day or night at the call of the sick, poor or sorrowful, than Mr Harper. Mr Bagnall writes very easily, with Scripture quotations, of the sick and poor, but the very letters he has written prove that he lias little or no real acquaintance with them, or he would soon have found them the first to testify to all I have said. In ca?c Mr Bagnall may find itjdifficult to rcadilj get into toucn. with the sick and poor at their homes let lu:n ask for tie opinion of those in elnu'ge at the hospital (he can easily get this on the telephone). I feel certain he would be told that nobody visits the patients more regularly, nobody is more ready to sacrifice everything in the interests of a sick or dying patient than Mr Harper. In conclusion, I must add that I have not had the slightest • communication with Mr Harper on the subject of Mr Bagnall's letters, and no jdoubfc like every other doer—and not a talker—of good, works he will muck dislike this open testimony to his sterling goodness, but, as I have said, after this second letter in to-night's 'paper I felt I must write, chiefly with'"the idea of trying to show Mr Bagnali how utterly wrong he is ; those most interested —the sick, the poor and the sorrowful—don't want showing, they know.—l am, etc., Lionel A. Abeahasi. P.almerston X., Nov. 15,1905:

(T«> the Editor).

Sic, —One of your correspondents in a letter which appears in your issue of to-night attempts to cast odium on the Rev. C. C. Harper for the stand which he has considered it his duty to take up in connection with the proposed Hospital Sunday. When your correspondent is able to show,that, in comparison with his leisure'and means, he gives a fiftieth part of what Mr Harper does in the cause of the sick, poor, and suffering, he will be entitled to speak on the subject. Till such time let him seek some other vent for his spleen. Mr Harper's duty is to those to whom he ia called on ti minister, and.l am but voicing their opinion when I say that he is perfectly justified in'the position he has taken up, and further that he is quite right in not being drawn into a newspaper correspondence on the subject. As the American proverb has it " One does not contend'for the sidewalk with a sweep."—l am, etc.,

A>" EXGLISHMAX. loth November, 1905.