PUBLIC OPINION.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2000, 16 December 1921, Page 5

PUBLIC OPINION.

ST. HELEN'S HOME. (To the Editor.) Sir, —The following appeared in your report of a meeting of the Friendly Societies which took place on Wednesday, December 14. "Mr Watson said that Dr. Paget had once made the statement 'that any old home would do to lease (for a maternity home) if it was necessary.' Several expressed surprise at this, etc." If Mr Watson is correctly reported, his words are absolutely contrary to fact It is not quite obvious whether the "surprise expressed by several" was at my having supposedly made such a statement, or at Mr Watson having uttered such an obviously absurd misstatement. If the surprise is at Mr Watson's uttering such an obvious mis-statement I can only day they probably had not known Mr Watson as long as I have, for while the misstatement is obvious, it occasions me no surprise that Mr Watson should utter it. —I am, etc., T. L. PAGET. [Mr Watson has callod upon us and stated that he did not intend attributing the statement he made at Wednesday evening's meeting to Dr. Paget. He had found his conclusion in the matter from a report of a previous meeting, in which Dr Paget was reported to have said: "Though opinion might be divided as to the urgency of the need for a maternity hospital, yet the matter was urgent enough to be put at once into the hands of a committee which would have the power, if it thought fit, to lease a building (though not to buy one), and could allocate part of the funds to purchasing equipment, which could always be transferred when another building was secured. —Ed.M.D.T.]