To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 17th April 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 81, 25 April 1846, Page 3

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 17th April 1846.

Not being in the habit of troubling the newspapers with the sentiments of my mind, I scarcely know how to address you. But being well pleaspd at the public meeting appointed to receive the answer from the deputation, I cannot refrain from stating my opinions as a working man, and •which I believe were the sentiments of the meeting in general. Having previously heard that the " self -elected deputation." were about to make their appearance on the stage, I anxiously wanted to know whether their personal interests, or the interests of the colony, had been the subject of discussion at their interview with the Governor. I must confess I went to the meeting prejudiced against the Deputation, and not until after Dr. Featherston bad begun to speak, was that prejudice removed. But after having heard the stiaightforward, manly, and disinterested statements of Dr. F. and Mr. Fitzherbert, I could not but come to the conclusion, that (whether self-elected or not) as men, and as a deputation representing the town of Wellington, they had done their duty, and were and are deserving the thanks of the community. Civil liberty is our right — it is a great boon, but has been much abused. lam fond of discussions, if meetings are conducted properly ; but when meetings are being interrupted by such mob orators as those who attempted to say something, but failed in the attempt on that evening, I think they were treated in the way they ought to be — Silenced. I have attended public meetings until I have been disgusted, — if a speaker was at a loss to gain applause, he had need only to attack the Government, the Company, or the Missionaries, declare himself an out-and-out radical, — his object was gained, and he was applauded; but I trust a better state of things is drawing near ; let us have measures not men. Ido trust that the demonstration shewn that evening will convince those mob orators that their speeches, if not their company, can be easily dispensed with. A Working Man.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Sni, — I notice in the items of public expenditure of the medical department a sum of fifty pounds. This sum, I apprehend, occurs quarterly : if so, I deem it a gross prostitution of the public revenue, and beg to protest most vehemently of its further appropriation to the abovenamed department as at present consiituted. "Why, Sir, may not Pakehas as well as Maories participate in this public outlay ? Are there not parties here who are as much the objects of charity, if not more so, than the Maories ? I trow there are. Owing to the artificial state of society, and disease consequent upon that state, combined with the depression so long endured by the set-

tiers, many of whom have been unable to obtain medical attendance and relief, I contend that they, the settlers, are more the objects of medical charity than their darker brethren. _ I am sorry that either class be neglected in this particular. There are gentlemen here of the Faculty who would attend to the wants and ailments of the natives far more efficiently than they are at present attended to, for a sum even less, or at least not exceeding that with which we are now charged; and, in addition to that, would not be less assiduous in their attentions to, nor lesp solicitous for their own countrymen requiring gratuitous medical relief. If we are to have a medical department, let U3 have an institution founded on some general principle— a dispensary for instance, or any thing differing from that which now exists. The gentleman who is now the whole and sole functionary of this department, is not overtaxed in his services for the very liberal sum with which he charges the public, nor is he subject to the supervision of another party. The Maories are by no means numerous in this part. I have known parishes in England whose population exceeded the whole of the natives in Cook's Strait, and though the inhabitants of these parishes lay widely apart, the parochial medical officer appointed thereto, has been in receipt of something less than a quarter of the sum charged for medicine and attendance on the Maories here ! ! He does not attend in midwifery cases, and the only remedies I believe he applies, are blistering and cupping, an operation the natives perform themselves. Oh I forget, he deals largely in " soft soder," and makes big promises of sugar, flour, blankets, and other merchandise, and may be found more frequently at his Honor's the Superintendent's than elsewhere; but notwithstanding all this, so poor an estimate have they of him, that they prefer in many instances applying to the Medical Hall for medicine, and paying for it themselves. I will now give this ex-offioio M.D. a recipe, a valuable one too, and I shall not be quite so exorbitant in my charges as he ; but before doing so, I would make a few preliminary remarks. It is well known by any person having the slightest knowledge of the physiology of the human frame, of the delicate sympathy subsisting between the skin and the internal viscera— that on the well-being of the one depends the other; hence it follows, that without frequent ablutions of the person, the system more or less will as assuredly become deranged. But here is the recipe? — Saponis Comtnui is 1 ton, Aquae purse nui nui Applicanda frequenter secundum artem. This then, if not the panacea for all the ills with which the Maories are afflicted, at least may be considered a specific for most of their bodily ailments, clvefly of a cutaneous character, and without which T emphatically assert that neither blistering, cupping, physicking, nor lollipopping, will ever avert disease, arrest it in its progress, or dissipate it when deeply rooted. Pulmonary consumption is, I believe, one of the maladies from which the natives inordinately suffer; and this too, as belonging to the internal viscera, is not less a result of the want of personal cleanliness than from any other cause. I do not suppose there is a medical man in the place but who coincides with the suggestions I have made ; and I am doubly assured there is scarcely one not of the faculty but looks upon this gentleman's sinecure as one no longer to be tolerated. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, James Mat. Wellington, April 23, 1846 s .