CHRISTMAS AT THE HOSPITAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 878, 28 December 1888, Page 17

CHRISTMAS AT THE HOSPITAL.

In the midst of all the gaiety and pleasure incidental to Christmas, the sufferers at our local Hospital were not forgotten. Our citizens generously responded' to the appeal for donations of kind and coin toward making the holiday as pleasurable as possible for the patients. The various wards and corridors were very tastefully decorated with flags, mottoes, and greenery. The mottoes were chaste and appropriate and of varied designs. The palm of meritfor the decorations is, by general opinion, awarded to No. 4 Ward. Two largo ChriHtmas trees were provided in the front corridor, which were heavily laden with a large variety of useful and fancy articles. The drawing for these presents commenced at 8 p.m., under the management of Mr F. H. Fraser, chairman of Trustees, and was productive of much merriment to the patients, who number at presenE 110, During the evening selections of vocal and instrumental music were given by some of the nurses, assisted by the members of the Sydney-street Primitive Methodist Church choir. The dinner at midday was of a substantial character, a liberal dessert, with wines, tobacco, cigars, being provided. A large number of donors to the dinner were present by invitation during the day.

rest assured that interest will be paid, but they must be prepared for an application for better terms when loans fall in and are renewed. From three to three-and-three-quarters interest wil' be about what can be afforded, and will be high at that, considering the security. A bas Giffen and all his tribe, say I, who figure for sensation sake. No statist has a right to guess and calculate about a colony until he. has first visited it, and made himself acquainted with its ins-and-outs, and then he will know and will do neither the one nor the other, but will state facts unless he is a malignant liar.

But it is not surprising that Financial Newses and Standards and Statists should never miss an opportunity of girding at the colonies when the latter are so careless of their own reputations as to give rise to such cable messages as that which was sent out last week, about the inaccuracy of the balance sheets of a certain shipping institution. Too much care cannot be taken to ensure accuracy in all dealings with the Mother. Country. We must strive to be above suspicion even of blundering.

The death-rate of London was exceptionally ow last September, and of course the newspapers made much of it in lauding the healthiest city, if not part, of the whole world. One however, indulges in a morsel of veiled satire at the expense of the medical profession. It said :

No doubt it is merely a coincidence that a considerable number of London's leading medical men' should have been away across the Atlantic during the month, attending the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons which began at "Washington on the 17th nit. The Congress is a congeries of medical and surgical celebrities, each devoted to its particular specialty ; so the gathering has been a gathering of the specialists. That universal specialist Sir Andrew Clark defaulted at the eleventh hour. This is suggestive to say the least of it. Before I address my readers in our next issue we Bhall have entered upon the Year of Grace 18S9. Let us hope it will be one of grace in abundance, one of resolution on the part of every colonist to do his or her utmost to develop the Colony’s resources, to maintain the Colony’s credit, to foster its reputation, to strangle darling vices ; to moderate the excessive self-seeking we of New Zealand are so much addicted to both as individuals and communities ; to “ swear off ” once and for ever that vile habit of befouling our own nest; to have nothing but good to say of our common country: to regard that same country as the very " hub of the universeand to love it better than any other corner of creation. Do . the work thoroughly—do it thoroughly. Every pound of indifferent butter sent out of the country is to its detriment: scraggy frozen mutton helps to damn it; sweaty cheese is an abomination. Ah, my friends, what we put our hands forth to do let us do with ail onr might, always aiming at perfection, detesting mediocrity, and carefully putting behind us good intentions, because we have before us the perfect way. Let us strive to make the name New Zealander synonymous of all that is upright, and downright, and capable, and progressive. And that once accomplished our, future is very thoroughly assured. X see “ Elise ” has been moralising in her column. Bead her. A Southern familiar, who sometimes drops me aline, not nearly often enough, sends the three following corners My readers have no doubt often heard the s tory that farm servants in the south of Scotland were wont, upwards of fifty years agoi when hiring themselves, to make a special con- , dition that they were not to be compelled to eat salmon oftener than once a week Salmon were so plentiful in the rivers in those days that the “ king of fishes ” was made an article of daily diet. A doctor down South, when advising a lady patient, told her if she ate meat at all to eat very little. 11 Oh !’’ replied the patient, “I never eat meat. My husband always keeps the house supplied with trouc.” Let us hope that the husband aforesaid has duly paid his license for fishing! The “ boom in oats ” has been very lively in the southern part of the Colony. Within a fortnight the price rose from Is 8d to 3s 6d per bushel. All accumulations will be swept up this year. The news of the break up of the drought in Australia put a stop to further Speculation, otherwise, there is no telling where prices would have got to. Happily, there are a good many instances where farmers have benefited by the rise. In one case I have heard of, the good luck has come as the result of pure accident. A farmer was taking up a thrashing machine to his place at the end of last season, and got bogged on the way. He found it impossible to extricate the machine, and had to abandon the idea of thrashing just then. If he had been successful in getting the ■work done, his oats would have been sold at Is 4d per bushel. Out of an apparent misfortune good has come, for the same oats (and a big lot too) have been sold at ?s fid. The New Zealand Times is advocating very strongly the necessity of providing bathing accommodation at the northern end of the town. Would it be believed that people are to be met with wh ) know nothing, of the luxury of a bath? A friend of mine, who has something to do with a public institution where it is an inflexible rule that inmates on admission must take a bath, assures me that cases have been met with where parties have admitted that they had not previously washed 'hemselves all over f< r 20, 30, ay.’, and eVeri fifty years. In the latter ease, the individual was a devotee of the church, but apparently he had forgotten the good old maxim that “ cleanliness is n’xt to godliness.” Asmodeus.