CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7976, 16 June 1887, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ENGLISH'RATES OF MEDICAL FEES. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —A correspondent, who signs himself " Perambulator," and who, it appears, has given up the humble but useful occupation of carrying babies and devoted himself to newspaper correspondence, has made certain statements with regard to medical fees in England, which charity compels me to believe are made in complete ignorance of the subject. "Perambulator" says that the fee of 2s 6d for advice and medicine "is not the rnle in England, except parhaps amongst some few low-clasß men, and such are equally found in all professions and trades, and whose advice, indeed, would be dear even at 2s 6d, either with or without medicine." I reproduce the ipsissima verba of your correspondent, as I do not wish to bo responsible for his bad English, which must havo been learnt from Sairey Gamp. Now, "Perambulator" is evidently not an Englishman, or he would not make the assertion he does about the class of medical men who charge 2a 6d for advice and medicine. There must be thousands of my fellow-countrymen in Auckland and the neighbourhood who aro quite able to substantiate my assertion that the most respectable practitioners in England and Wales charge no more to their poorer patients than half-a-crown, even for visits and medicine. I enclose a leaf from Lett's medical diary, giving the scale of fees charged usually in England, aud from this, which you can reproduce if you like, you will see that what I assert is correct. It is true that there is a graduated scale, based on rental, and that those paying a rental of £50 to £100 a year are charged from 5s to 7s 6d a visit; but the social conditions of this colony do not admit of such distinctions being made. As for what "Perambulator" states about consultants' fees in London having been raised from one guinea to two, he is only throwing dust in your readers' eyes. He must be aware that there is no class of medical practitioners in this colony who represent the puro consulting physicians or pure surgeons of the highest professional rank in the old country. The explanation of the high charges in New Zealand is simply this — a large number of Scotch and Irish practitioners have come out here and are practising. Now, in Scotland it is the usual plan for the medical man, who is generally a University graduate, to charge for advice or visit only, the chemist supplying the medicine. Except in remote country districts which would not support a chemist, I understand that this is the rule. I believe, too, that in Ireland the same system is adopted, but as I never was in Ireland, I cannot speak from personal knowledge. Naturally these Scotch aud Irish practitioners adoptod here the method in use in their native countries. But this has never been the practice in England or Wales. I speak not only from personal knowledge as an Englishman, but from having practised in England, and being one of a family in which there have been several practitioners. in mv native county, ' Staffordshire, in which I practised for some years, I can say that, with the exception of two consulting physicians, every medical man supplied his patients with medicine, and any one of them would have giveu advice and medicine for half-a-crown. JSow 1 maintain that the medical practitioner who will introduce the system of moderate feen and cash payments will really obtaiu quite as much in the way of income as by charging higher fees and giving credit. In tho latter case he does not ultimately got half his accounts paid, and really compels his solvent and honest patients to pay for the dishonest or bankrupt ones. " Perambulator" compares the charges here with those- in the other towns- I believe that they are just the same here as in Wellington and Christchurch. In Nelson they used to be lower than they are here, and the medical men used to give their medicine. The reason of this is stated to be that Nelson was a purely English settlement, with hardly any of the Scotch or Irish element in it. In Dunedin the charge is 10s. The question as to whether the advice of a particular practitioner is worth more or less than half a crown is one about which the public must judge for themselves. The man who began this system of moderate charges in Christchurch is not only doing by far the largest practice in the place, but is also attending the very beat class of patients. If I were to state what his income is, I should astonish some of your Auckland medicos. As this question is one of great public interest, 1 have broken the rule 1 havo for years made, of not replying to annonymous letters. If " Perambulator," therefore, wants any further reply, I should advise him to take a few lessons in English grammar and composition, and thon he will not be ashamed to sign his name when he makes a personal attack. —I am, eto. R. H. Bakewbjll, M.D.

flobaon-atreiit, Jane 15

P.S.—Why Boeotians? The men who make the lowest charges of all invariably live in large towns, and not in country districts. Let " Perambulator " consult a dictionary.

AN OLD COLONIST ON THE POLITI

CAL POSITION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —As an old colonist 1 should like to make some remarks on the present state of public affairs. When Sir J. Vogel first started his idea of getting the colony into debt, I, with some others, opposed the scheme as unwise and ruinous. 1 wrote several letters to the newspapers on the subject. This is an extract from one of them "As long as we can pay the interest on the debt we postpone the fatal consequences of our extravagance. Bat who can contemplate without a shudder the dawn of that day when it shall be announced that the dividends can no longer be paid ? Every banker, every merchant, every insurance company is at once insolvent. ISo cheques, no bank notes are of any value, even specie disappears. Every man hides or clutches with a death grip his sovereign or his shilling." The state of things here shadowed forth can now only be prevented by the determined energy of the electors. They must have no one for a member who will not pledge himself to carry out something like the following resolutions Ist. To reduce all salaries, beginning with the Governor, the .Judges, Ministers, and members of Parliament to be reduced in number, and members of the Upper House to get no pay. A great reduction must be made in the enormous sum spent on education. This expenditure must be reduced at least onehalf. No one appreciates the arts and sciences more than I do, but gold can be bought too dear, and a new colony must be oontent to gain its prosperity from the cultivation of itn •oil before it burdens itself with an enormous expenditure for high class education. One university is enough for the whole colony, The difficulties of the country must be met by a judicious use of the pruning knife, and not by increased taxation. The eleotors have now the power in their own hands. They must take care to whom they entrust it. When a candidate is before the people, he is all for their interest and for the good of hi 3 country, when he gets into Parliament he forgets all this, and looks to his own and his party's interest. —! am, &c., Elleralie, Jane 24, 1887. Albin Martin.

LAND SETTLEMENT, TO THE EDITOR.

etc.,

Sib, The short paragraph in this morning's Herai.d, referring to my paper on " Land Settlement and a Public Works Policy," so entirely misrepresents the views I endeavoured to express that I hope you will allow me space for a few lines of correction. I did not say that the fostering of local industries was ot secondary importance "compared with village settlements;" but that in our present stage of national development, the successful settlement of our cultivatable lands was, compared with the establishment of manufacturing industries, an object of prior importance. I did not advocate the expenditure of borrowed money on "special settlements." Special settlements were never mentioned throughout the whole of the paper. The main object of my remarks was to show the unprofitableness of a public works policy which did not take measures to promote the suecessful settlement of the land pari passu with the construction of rallwaye. To achieve this end I suggested that a portion of any sum voted for a railway should be expended in doing the ' first rough work of bringing the lands through which it passed into cultivation before any people were asked to settle on it. I suggested that this work should be doDe by contract, under the competent supervision of men of practical experience and knowledge; and that, when in such a condition, that an immediate return could be derived from the soil by an industrious occupier, the land should be leased at such a rent as would cover the interest on the money spent by the Government ia improving it, and one per

cent. more. I said I would not spend a shilling of borrowed money on new undertakings, except such as would be supplementary to works already undertaken, in order to make these remunerative. I referred to the' village settlement scheme to point out that it recognised the principle of spending public money to assist the first efforts of settlers upon virgin land, the property of the State. My proposals merely involve the carrying out of this principle in what appears to me a much more effective manner. —1 am,

Gerald L. Pkacookb,

June 15th.

THE PROTECTIONIST CATCH.

TO THE V DITOR,

Sir,—So Mr. Moss has turned Tory : he ie now advocating tariff protectionism—the quintessence of Toryism. Many are now deceived about this polioy by sophistical plausibilities. And Mr. Moss is mistaken in supposing he will seoure an eleotoral majority by this course. He had been reckoned an advanced Liberal or Democrat ; but protectionism is the enriching of the few at the cost of the many. George Fraser and his confreres do verily make themselves boldly prominent, but they are a small minority. Most deem it shoer impudence for them to be clamouring for a compulsory Act of Parliament to tax others for the benfit of their own particular trade ; that it would be less dishonourable for them to resort to tho voluntary principle, and to go round with their hat earnostly soliciting help. The demanded compulsion herein is rather more than wrong : it is absurd, almost ridiculous. And if machines better aud cheaper were never more imported here, the probability is New Zealand has as yet only a Rmall demand for ironworkers. Send us 20,000 agricultural labourers, who in Britain have been receiving each a total of 10s, Is, or 12a a week sell them land, dear title, the fair value, on "tick;" ration them (not pay them) fifteen months ; 5 per cent, interest on the total loan as long as they like, with permission to wipe off by small instalments. Big towns would then spring up in due natural course, and factories would arise and flourish. Bat it is futile to try to artificially inflate businesses and trades by taxing other peoplo. Oh ! keep the money in the place. Nonsense; scatter it abroad. A small farmer, having a bushel of choice seed sent him, prized it so highly that he carefully locked it up in his cupboard. But " there is who scatteroth aud yet increasoth." Tariff protectionism by force of law is unnatural ; it is real robbery by law. Persuade all nations to abolish all political tariffs as evil onlv, just as we persuaded the peoples to abolish slavery. Fine crusade. —I am, &c., ■ W. E. Sadler, June 14, 1887.

ANOTHER JUBILEK SUGGESTION.

TO TH K EDITOR.

Sir,—Numerous suggestions have beeu made as to the most appropriate and satisfactory scheme for founding a lasting memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee. The two projects most in favour seem to be the establishment of a "Queen's Fund" and the purchase of a Jubilee Collection for our Art Gallery. Both are most praiseworthy objects, and deserving of public support, but scarcely of sufficient scope at the present juncture. The distress in this city renders it imperative that any expenditure of money should be diverted into such channels that the benefits to be derived shall be as widely disseminated as possible, and that all classes shall share in the results. By all means let tho " Queen's Fund" receive substantial support, and while the ladies are zealous in their good oause, let the men consider if there is not some scheme by which an effort can be made to lessen tho claims on the benevolent exertions by providing work for the family bread-winner. I venture to think such an object might be aimed at by supporting the idea thrown out by Professor Brown in a recent lecture. Rightly or wrongly, all seem to look to a revival in the mining industry to dispel the cloud of depression now darkening o'er us, and I would sueeest that an attempt be made to raise the £500 required to meet the Government subsidy of pound for pound, which sun, with the unexpended balance of the vote for travelling expenses, £200, would be sufficient to erect the nocessary experimental plant at some mining centre, and possibly lead the way to more prosperous times. Let every one interested, private individuals as well as business men, unite and subscribe their guineas to such a Jubilee Fund, which under good management may bring comfort to many a now destitute home, and cause many a struggling one to remember with gratitude the Jubilee year, ISS7. - I am, &c., Rollo.