DUNEDIN LETTER.

Mt Benger Mail, 25 March 1914, Page 3

DUNEDIN LETTER.

(From the Tuapeka Times.)

, It is not a pleasant business and ; the best thing one can do, perhaps, is to leave it alone. But as a public , institution is concerned, aud as all the • people who know nothing about it are busy showing the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board what they ought to do, whom they ought to hang, and how much better run tbings would be , if only they had the running ot them, why, the Hospital and its medical staff and Board are good enough Aunt tallies to have a shy at. So here goes. At the outset let me say 1 am not among those who do not Know. 1 happen to have heard both sides and I am not a bit prejudiced either way. What are the facts as published ? A lady is knocked down, she is seemingly not hurt, a few hours later she collapse, she is taken to the Hospital, the house-surgeon is not in, the junior house surgeon attends to her and diagnoses the case correctly, as was subsequently continued by one of the Eieuical stall*. The woman dies. An inquest is held and a verdict is given in accordance with the facts. Then followed a newspaper correspondence winch resolved itself into this and these : thai there was no house surgeon on the premises, why '! That no surgtOij arrived until 5 or o hours ef- / ter the sufferer was brought in, why ? That tli.> junior surgeon was left in sole charge, is this right ? That he may have made a mistake and the victim may have been saved, is that j not scandalous '! In addition of course there were the usual tempestuous charges and wild assumptions. The truth ot the matter, 1 think, may be stated as follows (you must just take what I say on my authority] : The unfortunate lady was beyond human skill when she entered the Hospital. Her condition was accurately uiagnosed. The junior house surgeon is quite competent and his proceedings throughout were endorsed by las superiors, that there was no senior house-surg on and no v siting surgeon at hand is an illustration of an otd established truth that in 99 cases out of HHJ there never is the least hitch and that it is owing to some peculiar and exceptional but easily explicable concatenation of events that there occurs ;he one hundredth case in which everything is at sii.es and sevens.

Aad when this one hundredth C'.se comes along how we do roar '! We ban*, and we bite aud we snap audit we should happen to want to have n dig at any particular doctor, tr institution, why, then, sir we calmly und gravely sit down at our desks, as in duty bound, and without a n atom of malice we indict the said doctor aud the said institution at the bar of public opinion. And ihia is what we say: [l) Why was a young and inexperienced man, who is but just out of bis class-room, left in sole charge of an institution like ihePunedin Hospital ; it/Jj Where was the house surgeon ; (3) ■here was- the senior visiting surgeon; (4) had these been in their places a precious life might have been saved; 15j through inexperience and neglect that life was thrown away; and (6) sir, the i .alter must not be permitted to rest hero. In the name of the public who main; tain the hospital we demand a searching inquiry.

1 venture to think that there will be no inquiry. And for many reasons. 1 think the Board are quite satisfied with the iniormation already u t their command. J believe that the competent and brilliant youag surgeon \vhose name has beet dragged into '.be business could, if it were worth wink', f.diniuisler to lii.s disinterested press opponenta what the late Mr Wiikins Micawber would call " a series of facers,'' but is it worth while'.' Most people who are interested in the matter have a lery good idea whence came the questions as to when '.' where? and why ? If there are those who believe, as a result of this accidmt, that there is something rotten in the .>tutc of Denmark then, as f a r as the Board is interested, it would seem that they must continue to think so. We have had Sir J. G. Ward and Balclutha has had " Rickety " Russell, bo, we, have not done so badly. 1 suppose there arn t many picture shows down south and anything tLat is comic and promises a laugh is bound to draw. And there ib nothing more genuinely comic in New Zetland polities at this hour than the gentleman from the Plains except, perhaps, it. is a gentleman named At more of -Nelson, (lou should turn up this yentleman's three year old election speeches if you want to get at his real worth as a political prophet). For my own part 1 think Russell on the working classes fine, tjut that Pussell an political purity is liner while Russell on iinance is iinest of all. No picture snow can touch mm.

io me there is sui.. tum 0 iauuwSiy ' patneue in tuc spectacle ui virtue crusued beneath the cnaiiot wheels 01 victorious vice, ana it says \\-i.'y iuue ior tlie maoses whom he wojuld serve that they should repaid with »sneer and a jeer the man who only wants to be their .-aviour. There was a young man named Russell, Who lived in so ceaseless a bustle, That he seemed as though wanting to hustle Some other chap out of his way. Wo are getting along slowly but, I thine, surely with the Otago Medical ScJtool Extension Fund. We want £|;o00 nnd we have got £SOOO towards it, Have you any offers ? The list regularly published in Otago's Daily Crimes is somewhat disappointing. My own name, of course, is never given but that of " anonymous " is and you must draw your own conclusions. At present " anonymous " heads the list ! 1 glanced down it the other day in company with another giver and we were just a little surprised. Surely, he can spare more than that '.' we asked. But you never can tell. We do not know the calls that the well-to-do have upon them and they must spread their gifts. |\ou must therefore mi ke what you like out of the following story. A well-known and elderly citizen went into a corner fancy goods shop. " Have you any walking sticks?" "Yes, sir." "1 don't want an expensive one, just a plain stick." " Here you are sir, will this suit ?"' •' How much is it ?" " Half-a-crown " said the boy. " Urn, ah, oh, I think 1 should like something cheaper." Th« lad looked him ov«r, " Ok very

i mil *~t rw-tv well, you caa have it for eighteenpence." The customer took it, paid his Is Gd and left the shop. The bey followed him. "Who is that ';" he asked a loitering policeman. " That ? Oh, that's the famous , didn't you know?" "My word!" said the boy, and then he whistled. The bearin' of this story lies in the application thereof. Apply it to the Otago Daily Crimes' list.

And yet another (it is amusing h«.w they get about and keep out of print). When Mr Scotland was announced to make an aerial Hight from Tahuna Paric the question arose : " How mar>y will pay the sixpence entrance fee when I they can see everything from the J sandhills '!" Some four or live hundred \ did pay being animated by a desiro to j pla v the game and also to inspect the machine , Not so everybody. A wellknown citizen in his well-known motor, drove up with his lady in dashing style. Only he didn't make for the entrance. He motored round, stopped, got out, helped his lady down and, tho», both of them made for the fence that had to b« got over or through befors they could climb the sandhills for a full, fair and free view. Alas ! the lady was stout. The husband negotiated the barbed wire with an adroitness that implied much previous experience, but the lady—! No ! ihe really couldn't. There was no help for it. It was a ease of going In by the door and not of climbing the fence like the shepherd (he was called something else) in the parable. At sixpence a head this meant Is. And now comes the moral. The whole performance had been watched with grinning faces by the crowds on the hills who, when they saw the turn events h»d taken, burst into roars of ironic laughter and mocking hand clapping as the blushing couple came on to the lawn to get their money'B worth.