THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1909. THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS PARTY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14701, 8 December 1909, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1909. THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS PARTY.

Probably the public will never learn the whole truth concerning the proceedings at the caucus yesterday of Ministerialists. It rarely does hear the whole truth about these secret meetings. The official reports that are furnished to the press may be entirely misleading. They offer for popular consumption what in the interests of the party it is considered safe to publish. They may be more creditable to the powers of invention of the author- than they are worthy of credence. The community is frequently allowed to judge of what happened by the effects that are subsequently visible. Ancl> it is left in no doubt from what occurred in the House yesterday afternoon- that, whatever the arguments he may have employed) whatever the inducements ho may hare offered, whatever the conseqnonces he may have threatened, the Prime Minister succeeded in reducing his unruly team to a condition ol submission which, wliothcr it be temporary ov permanent, is at anyrate complete for the present. The members who had been fulminating against the Government at'the previous sittings on the ground of its betrayal of the principles which, they allege, have been part of the stock-in-trade of the so-railed Liberal party in the Dominion and had, in heroic language, been proclaiming their readiness to appeal to the country for an endorsement of their views wero strangely dumb yesterday. They had evidently ibeen, either persuaded or coerced into silence. Whatever the influence that had been exerted upon them, it had been of a singularly potent character. There was not one of them who was courageous enough to second a ; proposal-that was framed by Mr Fisher, a member of the Opposition, but aleaseholder, which affirmed that the proposals contained in the Land Bill ; were unsatisfactory. Tho whole burden I of their speeches, the whole secret of the stonewall which they had been , maintaining for some afternoons, was [ that the proposals were not unsatisfactory merely, but that they involved a- dishonourable surrender on the part . of the Government and the perpetration of the great wrong upon posterity of filching its heritage from it. That members who had committed themselves to an expression of opinions such as these should have been converted in the space of twenty-four hours to a ; frame of mind in which they were prepared once more mutely to fall into line 1 behind their betrayer was certainly , extraordinary. The explanation may be ' found in the developments of the next few days, but it is a reasonable concluJ sion that a truce has been patched up ! on the, basis of mutual concessions. As ' long as there is land legislation before the House, however, there is always, as members will havo realised last nixdit, when tho Land for Settlements Administration Bill was under consideration in . committee, the possibility that inter- . esting situations may suddenly be produced. Such a situation was that which was the outcome of a proposal by > Sir Majy-ey to graut to tenants in . occupation of settlement land tho option of arqniring the freehold. As the prin- [ ciple involved in this proposal was em- . bodied in the Government's Land Bill, the terms, however, on which the freehold should he obtained being different, • Mr Massey's amendment was a source of some embarrassment to Ministers and several of their supporters. But the experience of swallowing their conriotions is not novel with them, and • they repeated it last night. The division list will bo instructive to country settlers.

THE FfiEE MATERNITY HOSPITAL. It is to be regretted that the chairman of tho CEiaritnble Aid Board, having considered it desirable to summon a meeting of that body in order that tho new members might be made acquainted with the relationship which exists between it and the University Council in respect of tho Maternity Hospital m Forth street, did not think it necessary to set out tho facts of the ra*o plainly m \ f llllv . His explanaHon of the position really suppressed »b« material circumstances connected ••nth the foundation of the hospital, and if. it had not been for a qm > s tion that was put by .Air Blackio tho close of the meeting tho new members might have boon allowed to take m - Ay with them a very erroneous impression of the position. Tho fact is that the freo Maternity Hospital was established as tho outcome of the earnest representations of Dr Bntcholor, at that time lecturer on obstotrics in the University, in order that tho senior students in tho Medical School might bo afforded tho opportunity of securing the clinical instruction in midwifery whioh, in tho interests of those who are to become, their patients when they enter upon their professional career, it is imperative they should have. At tho present time a largo proportion of tho inhabitants of the Dominion are dependent upon coloni-iilly-traincd students for medical attention, and in the very nature of things this proportion must continually grow. We need not, however, emphasise this point, tho importance of whioh must be perfectly evident. Mr Seddon entirely appreciated tho necessity ■ for securing that medical students should be afforded mains of obtaining adequate instruction of a practical kind in midwifery, and, whilo ho refused to sanction their admission to St. Helens Hospital, he readily fell in with the suggestion of Dr Batcfielor that tho Government should grant a sum of money to aid in tho establishment of a free maternity hospital which, while it should be placed under the control of the Charitablo Aid Board, should at the same timo be an adjunct of the Medical School. Dr Bateholor himself was instrumental in raising a considerable amount i>y private subscription which was ipplicd to the equipment of the institution, and it was in virtuo of his position in the Medical School that m became medical officer of the Maternity Hospital. The Charitable. (Md Board, by its recent action, has, lowevvr, divorced tho hospital from >he Medical School, and lias defeated the object for which tho hospital was nstituted. Mr Walker seems to enter:ain the curious .notion that the students can receive clinical instruction n the absence of their teachers. And f the students are prejudiced in this natter the remedy ho would appar>ntly apply would bo to provide that he Charitablo Aid Board should be jmpowered to make appointments to •he University staff. What he forgets s that the members of tho Board are lot elected because they possess any laims to be regarded as competent to lecido tho personnel of a medical ifeiff. The public will recognise, however, that though Mr Hamel, who narked his first appearance at tho neeting of the Board by tho uttcrnco of several gratuitous and offensive puerilities for which there was lot the shadow of a foundation, md his colleagues may feel that' heir sense of their own dignity is rounded by the University Council laiming (hat tho condition upon which he Maternity Hospital was established Imll be observed, it is ridiculous to '■uggest that the University Council hould have foisted on to its teaching taff any practitioner who, by tho ttorcise of judicious touting, may peruade tho Charitable Aid Board to ppoinfc him as medical officer in charge if the Maternity Hospital. In the ncantimo tho interests of the students re suffering, and the future of the tfedical School, tho strengthening of rhich should be the aim of the people if Ota.go, is being imperilled.