Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1904. THE PROPOSED CONSUMPTIVES' HOSPITAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue XXXIX, 14 December 1904, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1904. THE PROPOSED CONSUMPTIVES' HOSPITAL.

A MOVEMENT WORTHY OF SUPPORT. THE movement towards establishing an annual Hospital Saturday and Sunday in the Nelson district, i.s beginning to take definite shape having a definite object in view, the establishment, and presumably in part,' thc future maintenance, of a hospital for those who suffer in the district from consumption. Dr. Valintine, the Assistant Health Officer, in his recent lecture, gave a basis7m which public sympathy ns represented by money might be enlisted, and last evening a public meeting in the city established a committee representative of and including the local bodies, friendly societies, and other corporate interests of the district. On Friday afternoon, the aid of the women of Nelson will be invoked, and without it no Hospital Saturday o Sunday movement can possibly be a success. In Australia and whereever the institution is in force it is the women who are tho principal street collectors. Their sympathy and enthusiasm give the movement its vitality, aitd it is sincerely hoped that similar co-operation from tbe women of Nelson will be forthcoming. ■» + ■** The project at present is to raise enough money in the city and district by donations, subscriptions, amd Hospital Saturday and Sunday collections to erect with the assistance of the State subsidy .ij hospital for consumptives presumably attached as* an annexe to the Nelson General Hospital. As Dr. Valintine pointed out the other ni^ht wo must be careful that Nelson is hot made a dumping-ground for the consumptives of other districts. At the same time, we must avoid any such scandal as arose over the' McUha incident in connection with the Nelson Hospital some time ago. Tt will always be difficult to reject persons seeking admission, no matter whence they I come. The only means of discrimi'n- I ation available, the charging /if J fees, must of necessity be left in the discretion of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, and it is here that in the future complications may arise. In most hospitals under the control of these Boards there is a tendency to make the collection of foes the main object and ..tbo ministration to the Kick the minor. The tendency may become exaggerated with regard to a hospital for consumptives, because patients admitted to such an institution generally come to stay for a more or less indefinite period, and not for the average short term in other hospitals. Any hospital for consumptives established here, therefore, while being largely self-supporting, must place a wide measure of dependence on tho generosity of the public on the annual Hospital Saturday and Sunday in order to serve Its purpofie as a factor of benevolence and beneficence. * * « * Apart from this issue of the future, however, tho need of Uu» P|Vsent is a prompt organisation for the institution of a Nelson Hospital Saturdny and Sujiduy. The 111'rantfomentH for lhe fll'Kt COIW'CUonH, to be made on ChmimnH V.W l\n« Christmas Day, which happen Ibis year to fall on a Saturday and a Sundav, must of necessity be hurried and more or less incomplete. But out of the commit tees now being iprmed unci the effort to bit made there is no reason why there should not come into 'existence a permanent WKaniHatlon which would be perfected year by year. Among the 1H,0I)0 odd constituting the population of the Nelson Hospital District, there should be no difficulty in raising tho half ot the, £J.BOO or so required^ to erect the Hospital (for. Consumptives, It »S ■ hardly to be exposed thftt ( »o (irst year's collections will find the requisite sum in full. But the results should be so encouraging Ithat the construction of the building might be proceeded with nninediatelv, dependence being i Uu<?d pn the co(}efttions of. tl^e SUCCfiOtlliig year or two to pfiy oil any liability remainiug. If * f After the Impressive facts placed before the public from time to time Remonstrating the increase in consumption and the need for elhcient treatment and housing as a mpqna pf checking that spread, little need bo said here. But it may be pointed out that a properly constituted hospital for consumptives in th" city would be fv priceless boon to miuilfamilies now struggling um|er almost .siipe-i-hiima.il difficulties tc treat aufkrvr* at hoimC a« thfi.V should bo treated, and yet to flVoUi the spread of contagion to others. Beside the vital and human importance of the need f»r such a. hospital as the one contemplated, the theories and precepts of political economy sink into absolute insignificance/ Logically, all should be taxed alike in order to maintain a pecessary institution 1 for the treatment of a more or less common disease. But jn practice the imposition of equal taxation does not work out, simply because elective local bodies dare not apply the principle. Hence resort must be made to the voluntary generQSity of all. those who pay taxes rijrectly ae ireU as tho{,e who indirectly enable those taxes to no paid bj? contributing board-mauey, rent aud the general expenditure of a community. In conclusion, ft is sincerely hoped that though tho organisation of a Hospital Saturday and Sunday for the Nelson district this year is necessarily hurried and may be somewhat imperfect, the movement ■ | will be taken up throughout the i province. If each centre, Iqt^Q nnd ' small-nNelson, Richmojfd, Bright; i water, Wakefield, Motueka, Takaka, Collingwood, and the hamlets between—will do their best Qn CflrTs't- • mas Eve and Christinas Pay, they

Will gather an offering meet for the season ; and the rest may be left to time and "good' management. Commenting on the success of Hospital Sunday in Wellington, the " Post "' says :— " The growth of ah institution having a purely altruistic object— one with which no partisan or controversialist can quarrel— is a thing that does the heart good. Such an institution is Hospital Sunday, which, since it has taken concrete form and been forced upon the pubjic mind, has i proved of steadily increasing usefulness. Public generosity lies lat<?n.t just as the popular mind IS often inarticulate, until some outlet for activity, some means of ex.pression. is .provided. When that is attained, the power of the public purse, .equally with that of the popular'" voice, makes itself felt. Hospital Sunday, and the support it has received, supply a case m point Those who have imposed upon themselves the by no means light duties of providing a Hospital Sunday for the people of Wellington are the bands, the nurses and the Naval Volunteers, and they will bo pleased to see that those to Whom the. appeal was made have not failed to respond. The collections, show a substantial advance on ,ast year's. If the sauw uctive initative, in the interests of the common weal, is repeated in years to come, *the pubjic will continue to respond, and Hospital Sunday will become here as great and valuable an institution., as it Is in the Australian Commonwealth, >