SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24632, 10 July 1943, Page 6

SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS

Indicative of the acute shortage of doctors were the proceedings before the Auckland Manpower Committee yesterday, when three hospital boards competed for the services of two doctors. One had to go short, of course, but that one, the Auckland board, admitted it commanded a staff of 23 medical officers, although nine were students and another nine at the very outset of their medical careers. If the hospital boards have to overcome difficulties, the public has not failed to note in the present and other cases that • they are given powerful official assistance. It is far otherwise with mere civilians. Often they cannot obtain prompt medical attention for love or money, even in serious and urgent cases. It is not that doctors fail in their duty. Those in civilian practice are all over-worked and can do no more. Attention has recently been drawn to conditions in Mount Albert, Takapuna and Otahnhu. Their state can be described as worse where that of all other districts is bad. With the all-round reduction of the home defence military forces, it had been hoped that many Army doctors would be returned to civil practice. Actually the net gain has'been small. The scheme to release experienced doctors from military service in exchange for the enlistment of junior residents from the Auckland Hospital affected few in numbers. Obviously the Government, on behalf of the mass of civilians, will have to examine more narrowly the needs of the services in order to discover whether, under existing conditions, more doctors can be released, either part time or whole time. The staffing of large public hospitals might also be made the subject of careful review. An essential commodity in short supply should be used as thriftily as possible so that every real call can be answered.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Discomfort in School Sir, —-I am surprised that no parents have expressed concern at the report of the frigid conditions existing at the Auckland Grammar 'School. I understand that the classrooms on two sides of the school receive no sunshine at all —even in the summer. I have heard the building described as "a palace of draughts." In some rooms, gas-fires exist, which warm the pupil sitting nearest them —unless the master dislikes the fumes and refuses to have the fires alight—but leave the rest of the class in cheerless chilliness. An election of two parents' representatives on the Auckland Grammar School Board is to be held this week. It would be helpful to voters if we had some indication whether the candidates share our concern for a speedy improvement in conditions for the present

pupils. Parent of Two Farmers and the Liberty Loan

Sir, —The fact that the two great butter-fat producing centres of the Auckland Province are making such a limited response to the war loan appeal' should give the Minister of Finance some food for thought. He will possibly remember that when he fixed the price for butter-fat in 1938 he acted against the recommendation of the commission set up by his Government and the dairy farmers have suffered ever since. There is no more loyal and willing section of the community than the primary producers, but the Government, controlled by the trade unions, appears to be quite content to "destroy the bold peasantry, the country's pride." The farmers wotdd subscribe to the loan if they could. At present they simply have not the funds or the prospect of getting them to enable them to contribute. Cow Cocky. Miners' Absenteeism

Sir, —Recently a female employee was prosecuted by the manpower authorities for being absent from an essential industry without just cause. At one Waikato coal mine last week there was an average of 48 men absent from work each working day, and in the whole Waikato district approximately 100 mine employees failed to attend work. Why are miners exempt from prosecution while females in less political unions are punished ? Miners, whose agreement provides that they shall remain underground until four o'clock, have for months been marching out each and every day from 2.30, and shortly after 3 o'clock not a single miner remains underground. Meanwhile the public are desperately short of coal. Why do the manpower authorities fail to take appropriate action, or do they feel safer in making an example of" a mere girl? No Fukt,. No Right of Appeal

Sir,- —The Ministerial policy of treating Magna C-arta as a paltry and outmoded scrap of paper has been carried one stage further by the provisions of an Order-in-Coun'cil just recently promulgated. Centuries ago the barons of England forced a stubborn and dictatorial king to acknowledge that, within the realms of England, justice should never be denied to any man who sought it. Seven hundred roars later historians and jurists of world-wide repute joined in declaring that this great charter constituted one of the most outstanding landmarks in the agelong struggle of mankind for protection against the abuses and weaknesses of tyrannical authority.

A few days ago, a 'group of Ministers in Wellington, without any reference to or consultation with Parliament, laid down the rule that in certain (specified cases a Ministerial direction shall have the force of law and that those who are injured thereby shall have no right whatever of appealing to a higher and independent authority. Tills is Labour justice; it is also British justice in reverse. The amazing tiling is that the Minister of Justice remains passive and impotent while the pillars of our judicial system—the very basis of our liberties—are hacked away by a political party that cares nothing for tradition and seeks to substitute a Ministerial order for the rule of law. Our judicial system continues to function adequately and well as regards disputes between citizen and citizen; but what legal rights are left to the unfortunate citizen who happens to have a dispute with the Government, or with one of its many dictatorial departments? What has happened to those rights and who has destroyed them or taken them away? R. M. ALGIB.