HOSPITAL BOARD AND THE MAIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 June 1926, Page 5

HOSPITAL BOARD AND THE MAIL

(T) The Editor.) Sir,—Seldom has a public body made such a parlous mess of things; seldom has a chairman given vent to such art exhibition of childish bad temper and invective as have the Nelson Hospital Hoard and its chairman. It is un> doubtedly to your credit that although you were in a position to smite them hip and thigh, to rend them limb from limb, you contented yourself with a rebuke that gamed'force in its dignity in comparison with the stamping and almost incoherent rage of the chairman. And why all this ado? Simply because you as editor of a public newspaper - chose to allow certain questions to be asked of the Board and allowed j certain < criticisms of the Board in relation to" tiie Hospital grounds, to be printed inyour paper. The Board say you scotched the subscription scheme by printing a lot of twaddle about the garden scheme. Tho Board is either particularly complimentary to you or particularly insulting on the Nelson citiv.ens. It says little for the Board's, opinion of Nelson's intelligence that a piece of twaddle can be printed and forthwith the whole of the public, with the poor amount of intelligence at its command, is credulous enough to believe the twaddle and refuse to subscribe to the garden fund. But is the public so void of sense that you can mould the opinion as you will with a deft stroke of the pen? There must surely be some merit in your at tides ere the contents . would be so readily absorbed by an unintelligent public. Nothing'hurts so much as the truth—it was the truth" that hurt'the Board, and it was the truth. that the public believed. The Board's view very evidently is "Eveiybody in.the company is ou't of step but our. Jock.'' ■• When one reads of any public man not seeking re-election, the'question is generally asked; "Why not; doesn't he think the public would put :. 'him back." The threat about starting , at. opposition paper must have made -. you smile. It was the childish threat of a man wielding a cane of £2OOO and ■/■ imagining that he held a fairy's wand. There is nothing* to stop the Boaird . starting a paper of jts own —run." on • truly business-like Hospital lines—it ' would be interesting to see how a pri- ' vate venture run on such methods would fare.—l am etc., CONGRATULATIONS.