THE HOSPITAL INQUIRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19413, 23 August 1926, Page 12

THE HOSPITAL INQUIRY.

COMMISSION SITTINGS END. MEDICAL STAFF'S EVIDENCE. RELATIONS VERY CORDIAL. ADDRESSES BY COUNSEL. Tho Auckland Hospital inquiry ;\yas brought to a close on Saturday mottling whan counsel for the parties cited addressed the commission. The commissioner, Mr. A. Gray, K.C., returned last evening to Wellington, where he will consider the evidence and compilo his report for submission to the Governor-General. The hearing of the evidence and the opening and closing addresses of counsel occupied 12 days. When the inquiry was resumed on Saturday the commissioner said he had received letters from a number of members of the honorary medical staff of the hospital. Dr. W. A. Fairciough; honorary ophthalmic surgeon to the hospital, said the new eye department in the Wallace block was most satisfactory and.a great advance on, the accommodation previously available. The plan of the floor space available for the department was submitted to him for convenient subdivision before the building operations were commenced. _ Dr. Kenneth F. Gordon said that as he had only very recently been appointed to the hospital staff ho had no evidence to offer, but it had been perfectly apparent to him that very cordial relations existed bet\yeen the board and the honorary medical staff. "No Grievances Whatever." Dr. Frank Macky advised that as far as he knew the members of the honorary staff had no grievances whatever, and they were on. excellent terms with tjic board. In his short experience he had found that if the honorary staff had been able to agrees on a request the board had always done its best to grant it. He had no recollection of the staff as a whole being consulted as to buildings, about which, after all, the members of the staff knew very little. However, thoy had always been consulted about special instruments and equipment, and they were given whatever they asked for, Drs. A. Osborne Knight, N. G. Williams and W. G. Scott advised that they had no evidence to offer. Mr. Leary, counsel for tho New Zealand Institute of Architects, said he wished to make it quite clear that the institute insisted that the minimum commission charged by members of the institute should be 6£ per cent, This was in accordance with a world-wide scale. Mr. G. W. Allsop, architect to the board, had charged only 5 per cent. Were this not in pursuance of usage commenced 19 years ago, and following up a contract of even greater antiquity, Mr, Allsop's action would be regarded by the institute as highly reprehensible. Mr. Leary said he was not quite sure whether ho had made the position perfectly clear the prc-

vious day. The Commissioner: That is what I understood. Question ol Responsibility. Addressing the commission on behalf of the'siJcretary of*the board, Mr; H. A, SomerviM, and the, consulting engineer, Mr. A. J. Walker, Mr. Meredith submitted it was clear that the architect had some feeling -against the secretary, and was unfriendly toward him. In his complaints of delay in the payment of his accounts, his attitude had been utterly childish. \ Mr. Allsop could not got away from his responsibility for ordering the wrong, motors. If he did not know the difference between alternating current and direct current then he should not

have led th<s board, which was composed of non-technical members, to believe that ho understood fully the requirements of the laundry, ana thereby obtain, a commission that should have'gone to a fellow consulting officer. '' . Mr. Meredith submitted that the correspondence between Mr., Allsop and Andersons, Ltd., showed that Mr. Allsop had taken full responsibility for orderfog the machinery. ,; Mr. Walker . had been' instructed to furnish a joint report with Mr. Allsop on the laundry. He had done (.hat, and that.'was as far as the instructions of the board went. There was definite evidence that Mr. Allsop had not consulted Mr, Walker about the machinery. Mr. Walker had maintained all along that he was not to blame, but when the mistake about the motors had been discovered he did everything possible to get Mr. Allsop out of a difficulty and retrieve the position for the board. It might be said that Mr. Walker had, not reported tha mistake.to ttie board* but ho had conaidered that was not his duty and that it Would hot have been a fair and decent 'Wl.' «o in connection with another 1 professional /mart. Cojits of thfi Inquiry. ~^ r - asked the commissioner if hp desired any submissions on the question of costs. The commissioner replied that his commission required him to assess and apportion the coats.

Mr. Meredith: I trust we will not be affected by too question. Mr. Northcroft: You mea'n. adversely. (Laughter.) Mr. Meredith said the commission was, not the creature of the parties lie and Mr. Northcroft represented, Thay had never asked for it. The inquiry was a result of newspaper propaganda, and the Auckland Star, doubtless in the course of what it considered to be the public interest, was mainly responsible. It seemed a pity that that paper had not been cited, as it was obvious the paper had obtained its information from some sources, These had not beisn disclosed, nor had the | people who had supplied the information come forward to substantiate the charges they had made. ' Wo are only here as a sort of fringe to the fabric," Mr. Meredith observed amid laughter, "and we should not be mulcted in expenses that otherwise would not have been incurred." Mr. Northcroft, counsel for Mr. Allsopp, said he wished to associate himself with Mr. Meredith's submissions on the question of costs. It was perfectly clear that the differences between the officers of the board and the trouble at the laundry required investigation. The intention was that these matters should be investigated by the board and they could have been investigated in a couple of evenings at the most. Mr. Northcroft submitted that the responsibility for the commission rested upon the "Auckland Star "and more directly upon Mr. S. J. Harbutt, a member of 'the. board. A Member's Statements. Counsel agreed that the Star should have been cited, and he also thought Air. Harbutt should havo been called on to come forward aiod substantiate in public the sensational stateriients he made at- a meeting of. the board about extravagance. Since making these statements Mr. Harbutt had been re-elected as a member of the board, and in his appeal for re-elec-tion he claimed it as a merit that- he had started the inquiry. Tho Commissioner: The motion oil ling for an inquiry was adopted by the whole board, was it not ? Mr. Northcroft said the board' could 6ot have clone anything else after hearing Ir. Harbutt. Counsel added that the personal parties cited in the inquiry had been put to great personal expense and Inconvenience, w'ni.e they had been subjected to an inquiry that was never contemplated by them. The matters having been made pubhc, however, it was essential that their should be investigated in

Dealing more particularly with the caso for Mr. Albopp, Mr. Northcroft said it was apparent that the secretary had disregarded .the complaints of the architect. Mr. Somervillo had appeared as a. selfsatisfied, self-sufficient individual, thoughtJess of the feelings of others and ready to domineer. When he did anything, he did not feel it incumbent on him to observe the ordinary courtesies and acquaint those immediately concerned with what lie had done. Tim inquiry had revealed that Mr. Somervillo had no right to make deductions from Mr. Alison's accounts, and it had been proved the latter was entitled to all ho had claimed.

Counsel said Mr. Walker must shave with Mr. Allsop the responsibility for the mistake concerning the motors. His withholding of information from the board was not the action of an entirely innocent man. There had not. been much to complain about in regard to the equipment of the laundry. Although the press and Mr. Harbutt had had a great deal to say about extravagance, the case was overwhelmingly burdened, with evidence that Mr. Allsop stood alone in New Zealand as an architect competent to design and carry out, hospital work. Charges of Extravagance.

Mr. A. 11. Johnstone, counsel for the board, said no evidence had been put before the commission to substantiate the charges of extravagance made against the board for the excellent reason that" no such evidence could be adduced. The Pukekohe Borough Council, tho Onehunga Borough Council and tho Onehunga-Manu-kau Chamber of Commerce had called for the inquiry, but they had decided not to be represented. The commissioner might bear this fact in mind when considering the apportioning of the cost of the inquiry. The Star had published articles concerning tho hospital under scare headlines. One of the canons of decent journalism was that charges against a local body should not be published unless they were well founded. The paper had not furnished evidence to substantiate- its charges, while; on the other hand, there was ample evidenco that there had not been any extravagance. Common fairness demanded that when the charges had been shown to bo without foundation they should be withdrawn.

Mr. Johnstone submitted that the whole of the board's building programme had been justified. The board had obtained the assistance of experts and it could not be blamed for the trouble at the laundry.* While it would appear that there was sonic foundation for the charges in connection with the laundry, it was proper to remember that neither the laundry nor the equipment would be permanently bad and that there would not be any difficulty in operating the laundry. The mistakes could be put right without great cost to the board, for he took it that the board would see that neither of the experts who .was responsible would receive payment for his * disservice. Position of the Board. On the question of costs; Mr. Johnstone said the board had not asked for the commission. Mr. Harbutt had suggested a departmental inquiry and the other members of the board had sopported him. The board had come into the commission only incidentally, but it had come out of it excellently. Nine-tenths of the evidence related to differences between three officers of the bb&rd, and counsel suggested that if the commissioner found himself compelled to assess the board with portiorf of the costs, he would assess it only in proportion to the place it occupied in the inquiry. At the close of his address, Mr. Johnstone conveyed to the commissioner the appreciation of counsel and tho parties of the courteous and patient hearing he had given them. The commissioner thanked Mr. Johnstone for his remarks and expressed his appreciation of the assistance counsel had given hirn. He would also like to place on record his appreciation of the courtesy of the Hospital Board in placing the board room at his disposal and of the assistance rendered him by the officers cf the board, the secretary of ; thb commission, Mr. L. M. Shera, the associate, and tho press.