NEW ZEALAND TELEGRAMS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8834, 18 July 1890, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND TELEGRAMS.

OVERDUE SHIP ARRIVED. Wellimgtok, July 18. The ship outside the Heads is the overdue Otaki, from London.

A cable message from Sydney this afternoon states that several sai' : ng vessels from New Zealand to that city p-e repoited overdue. From the Inspector of Hospitals Report we learn that last year the New PJymouth hospital had in it 114 patients, its revenue was £3033, and subscriptions £10 16s ; Oamaru, 115 patients, revenue £1528, subscriptions £114 17s ; Reefton, 122 patients, £1462 ; subscriptions £423 17s ; Timaru, 263 patients ; revenue £2470, subscriptions £4 4s ; Waikato, 117 patients, revenue £3035 ; subscriptions £54 19s ; Wanganui, 169 patients, revenue, £1684, subscriptions £5 Is; Wellington, 947 patients, revenue £8274, subscriptions £138 11s; Gisborne, 82 patients, revenue £1050, subscriptions and donations £145 ; Ashburton, 141 patients, revenue £1201, subscriptions and donations £3 3s; Auckland, 1047 patients, revenue £8014, subscriptions and donations £21 12s;at Blenheim, 109 patients, revenue £2254, subscriptions and donations 153 7s lid; at Christchurch, 434 patients, revenue ±8876, subscriptions £72 8s ; Dunedm, 1016 patients, revenue £6628, subscriptions £252 9s 9d; Grey River, 153 patients, revenue £2672, subscriptions £733 11s; Hokitika, 242 patients, revenue £2330, . subscriptions £493 13s; Invereargill, 161 patients, revenue £1831, subscriptions £137 10s; Napier 273 patients, revenue £2359, subscriptions -t'335; Nelson, 116 patients, £2166 revenue, no subscriptions. . It is stated th.it it was a represeptative of a wealthy Australian now on a visit to this country who ran up the prices of che Landseers so extravagantly at the WeUs sale. He did not secure any of the . pictures, because the publishers of engravings were bound to buy the more popular ones whatever they cost. However, after the engravers have copied the ' Highland Interior' and ' None but the Brave deserve the Fair' it is not impossible that one or other of these master-pieces m<iy find their way to Melbor-ne. The . 104 Landseers sold at Christie's realised a total of £77.000. . Mr Goschen's Budget, judging from the remarks of two farmers on their way home from the market the other day, has failed to please the quiet country folk of the North. "What dae ye think o' that plan o' puttin' a saxpense mair on the whuskie ?" " Weel, think awfu' little o'd ; it neither mak's a spune nor spoils a horn, but just a kind o' lets things gang onywey. Some'll sell their drink dearer, ana some'll put in - mair water ; it's eneuch to gaur a man join teetotal." " Dinna say that. Bob ; ye've nae idea hoo solemn a thing it ia tae gang tae yer bed deid sober." The first real hospitpl was one situated '. at Epidaurus, and dedicated to iEsculapius. This hospital was in fi;' l working order 500 years before Christ. It consisted not only of a genera l hospital, but of two special hospitals in addition. The temple proper contained accommodation for ordinary or acute cases, and also a establishment. In separate buildings were a lying-in hospital and a chronic hospital, ana to the latter the aged ' and infiim, and those believed to be in arliculo mortin, were admitted. The priests - o? Saturn in Egypt treated people for lunacy 1500 years before Christ. This laßt fact is important, because we find that under them lunacy was considered as a disease not to be repressed, but as one to ba overcome by kindness and skilled treatment, and the temples of Saturn combined much that is now to be met with in our best lunatic asylums. These hospitals and asylums were found on the pay principle, for no one who resorted to them had so little self-respect as to desire to obtain feef # cc medical relief, and all took care to compensate those at whose hands they received treatment and benefit. There were home' hospitals at Rome 250 years before Christ, called Tabernse Medicas, which at first only contained consulting rooms, were the physician used to see out-patients on pay- ' merit. After experience it was found that there were many cases that could be better treated if they were constantly under observation. So rooms were built for the reception of in-patients as annexes to the Ta'trnce, where paying patients were admitted and treated successfully. This is a very interesting point, because tlieso Tabernpe includes all the branches of our present hospitals— i. c., an out-patient department, an inpatient department, . ' consulting rooms, and hospital accommodation for paying patients ; but all those who attended — i, c., both the in-patients and out-pationtß— had to pay for the treatment they received.