NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 164, 13 July 1895, Page 2

NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

Mr Beddon proposes to regulate the fees to be paid to medical men by law. He thinks that two guineas aro too much for any physician to charge for supplying and administering a dose of anti-toxin, and his present intention is to introduce a hill to deal with the subject of remuneration of medical practitioners. I wonder very much whether he is going to get a law pa-sed to compel surgeons and physicians to perform operations and attend patients as per scale. It is easy enough io lead a horse to the water, but mighty hard to force him to drink, and I cannot imagine any legal process by which an dentist could be forced to couch a patient's eyo for the sum of two shillings and sixpence or whatever olso the Premier might think sufficient remuneration for tho operation. No other professional men in the world do so much work for nothing as those in the healing trade. No doubt thero are extortioners among them, as there are black sheep in every liock. Being blessed with reasonably (>ood health physic and those who practice it trouble me little, but I can say honestly that J do not think I ever knew a medical man who ever hesitated about attending a case, because he was doubtful whether or not he would receive his fee. When ti map gels to tho ton of the tree in any profession people ri^li atter him uud are willing to pay enormous sun) 3 for his services. Sir Andrew Clark was at times paid for single cases what humbler men in his profession would have regarded as a large income for a year's work. On the other baud in a recently published memoir it is recorded that, busy man as he was, lie once went a long journey to the couutry to attend a case, and was tendered two guineas, with the remark that tbere must be a double fee as he had taken n great deal of tronble. Sir Andrew, who was a courteous gentleman, accepted the fee with as good a grace as if it had been a thousand pounds. I should like very much to know by what process of law Mr Seddon proposes to prevent grateful patients of large means irom rewarding their medical advisers as largely as they pieose, and how ho intends to prevent members of the profession from selecting their patients as thoy choose, I take a great interest in tbe Colonial Treasurer, which is evident from tha faot that last week I devoted two notes to him. Tho interest originally aroso, I think, from the fact that when be first beoamo & Minister be was in the babit of keening a oivil tongue in bis bead, and so differed from some of his colleagues. But St. Paul, quoting from Menauder, a writer oi stage plays, ?aYB that evil communications corrupt good manners, Mid is Ml" Ward tho process seems to be nearly complete. It is sad to think that a man naturally so amiable should be led to cay such harsh things about his fellow-creatures a*! bo dbes about his political opponents. Thie, bfoweyer, is entirely apart from what I intended to say, My object at tbe start was to protest against a practice which prevails in many parts of the colony, ovc-n including Nelson, and that is cutting down nikau and fern trees to decorate ball rooms and banquet rooms. I noticed that tbis was to bo done in honour ol Mr Ward, and lam sorry. I admit that the Oolonial Treasurer bas done wonders, He has mado treaties, has boon presented at Court, bas dined with all sorts o£ swells, has raised a loan, and if it would do him any pleasure I should be willing to say thnt he bad defeated the conspiracies ot which he talked before bo left Nuw Zealand, provided I may be allowed to protest against tbe beauty of New Zealand- ipresis being destroyed in order todo him special ' honour. Tbore is not much bush in tbe neighbourhood of Wellington now. A few pieces remain, which are a source ot joy to many, and some o£ tho groatest ornaments are those trees whosetropicalappcaranoeiuduaes ono to think that New Zealand onco broke away from moorings Fomewhere near the Line. Botb nikau and punga grow very slowly, and it seems a pity for the sake of decorating a room to chop them down. My own opinion is that never a Oolonial Treasurer, not oven excepting Mr Ward, was worth the sacrifice. Mr A. W. Hogg, member for tho Masterton electoral district, expressed a hope tho ; othor day iv tho House of llepreseutativos that journalists would never bo reduced to tbe position of mere professional men. Tbe remark was made during a debate on the Bill for tbo incorporation of the Institute of Journalists, to whiob for some extraordinary reason ho had ah objeotion. Mr Hogg was ut ouo tima a newspaper man himself, and possibly ho thinks tljl.t it i( impossible fo-.- any oalling wliich be has followed to bo dignified witb the namo oj profession. Thb Bill seems to bavo been a very'harir'tcss one. Tbo Institute of Journalists is in existonoe, and all that was wanted was to give it an established position in tbo eye of the law such as many other Associations enjoy, but tbo proposal seemed greatly to exasperate Mr Hogg, Mr fieddon, and above all Mr McKenzie. Mr McKenzie hates newspapers and those wbo write in tbem with a cordial hatred, which he does not take tho least tiouble to disguise. If he had his way New Zealand would be about as pleasant a placo of residenoe for editors and reporters as Russia is. It would be interesting to know why Mr Hngg thinks that journalism would be degraded by beoomfng a mere profession Perhaps he likes quacks better tb'arf properly quali.ied medical men, and bush lawyer's bettei* tban real solicitors and barristers {I'is'trVe thai; th'o press has beon largely recruited by men who have been brought up to olher pursuits, but thero does not geem any good raason why men should not be regularly truined to it. At all events tie cause of journalism could not b. hurt if an Aebool ition in the oause of brotherbpod IWfl goodihll^hij? were pn f

into a position to protect its~property and to be rccogoised by tbe law. Every belief, science, and art, has to face dissent, aud it is just a^ well that it should be so. Even Adam Smith is held by a good many modern writers and politicians to have been wrong in his conclusions, and from time to time men tnrn up who deny the rotundity of the earth. Not long ago a writer in your paper did bis utmost to prove that the moon had nothing to do with the tides. Personally I am by nature on the side of authority. The world was not created exactly atthe time when railways and telegraphs came into fashion, and the generations of men who lived before ns were not entirely destitute of intelligence. But still dissent bus its uses, and orthodoxy may learn and does learn a great deal from it. Homoeopathy has helped to teach medical men that it is a mistake to deluge their fellow-creatures with large quantities of drugs, aud that the best way to effect a cureisbygentlcmeans. Prae-Raphaelitisni which forty years ago or so prodnced many hideous pictures, was noc without its good efiect on art, and some of the best painters of our time were, in their younger days, smitten with it. The cardinal doctrine of the school was lhat painters should always go to naturo for tlieir teaching. It did not matter to them how ugly a natural model might be, it was better for tlieir purpose than the finest antique statue. Mr Kuskin, in one of his books, gives an extreme instanco in a picture by a real Prae-Raphaelite— that is a painter who lived before Raphael. The subject was an incident supposed to have happened to the three magi, or kings of Cologne, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. They encountered three dead kings lying together, and instead of investing their living majesties with a poetical modern sort of appearance of awe and solemnity, the painter depicted one as holding his nose, and the others in almost equally grotesque attitudes. This certainly was carrying fidelity to an extreme, though Mr Ruskin is inclined to defend the motive which prompted the pioture. Still with certain modifications it cannot be denied that a painter should keep his eyes open to nature as it really is, and should not be contented with mere imitations of the works of those who have gone before him.