TIMARU HOSPITAL BOARD.

Timaru Herald, Volume LV, Issue 5518, 21 September 1892, Page 4

TIMARU HOSPITAL BOARD.

The monthly mooting of tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board wa3 held yesterday. Present : Mcbsm J. Jackson (cbnirman), Grnham, Gillingbam, Sherratt, Talbot, and Barker. Apologies were received from Messrs Moore and McLaren. The chairman stated that there was not much to report. Thore wore more demands than usual for charitable assistance, and Ihora were some, cases on whioh he would like tho board's opinion. Two persons were waiting to state their case to the Board, as he had declined to deal with them on his own responsibility. One case was an old man who had been seven or eiaht years m the hospital, and had bcon sent to tho barracks but waa found a troublesome customer there. Another was a young woman who wanted her patsage paid to England ; a reqnest he declined to comply with on his own responsibility. In the case of ono yaung woman eho had T)een got rid of by admission into a home for girla, and after some difSoulty her child hsd also been admitted. A woman with fsur children had fallen upon their hands from Melbourne. Her husband had loft her and she came to Dunedin, and the Board there forwardecTher to Timaru as the husband was hero. The question was whether they send her away again or have her everlastingly on their hands. The Board'B funds were now£lo29 m credit; payments for the day— heavy m tbo caso of the Hospital through payments for improvements authorised— totalled £378 7s 9d, leaving £700 183 7d to carry on for three months j he was afraid they oould not avoid on overdraft. An elderly man, aged 50, waited on the Board to prefer a request for help. The chairman stated the man had been m tbe hospital six or eight years, and for tbe past few months he had been out of the hospital, and a source of great trouble at the barracks, Ho thought the man quite able to work; and therefore he did nat care, without the sanction of the Board, to allow him to continue a burden on tho Board. The man had been rambling about, and if he got a shilling spent it m beer. He gave him a pair of blankets conditionally on his going away and trying to earn hia living. He took the blankets, but very soon ■ came ; back again. Complaints reaohed him that the man made free with other men's provisions when m the barracks. He did not want to act harshly, but this old man waa a troublesome case. In reply to a question Mr Jowsey said tbe man suffered from stricture of the urethra ; he would be very much better if he would drop the liqoor. : The applicant denied that he had taken anyone's food ; what had been referred to was given him by a man who said ha did not want it. He denied that he drank. He had boon working at :Kingadown for his tucker and a fig of tobacco a week. There wbb not much drink about tbat. On Monday he worked and got his dinner and. a .shilling, the shilling went for a bed at night — " not much drink over that lot." He requested that ho might' bo allowed to stay a week or so m the barracks, with rations, till ho could look round for employment. A long diaoussion took place upon thißcace, tho members genorally considering it a case of imposition. •It was suggested that the Vagrant Act supplied the proper means for dealing with him. The secretary stated that there was plenty of work to be done at the barracks, but the man would not do anything. It was agreed to give him another weak. Ho waa called m again and told that ho could remain m the barracks for a week with rations, and at the end of that time be must cease to trouble the board, • the inclination of tbe board being to hand him over to the police if he did. Applicant : They say it is no sin to be poor, but it seem* it is. - Tho chairman ; The sin is not m being poor, but that you will not help yourself. The applicant wanted to know how be could help himielf, suffering as he was from a chronic disease. Members said the Board were not supposed to keep iropostero and loafers, but Mr Graham said it was very hard to draw the line. Mr Sherratt had asked if tbe Board had any surplus labour that they could let the Borough Council have, to work the Domain, but he did not care to ask for this man's services. ' ; A youDg woman waited on the Board.to ask them to pay her passage Home. She is a cripple from rheumatism and deformed limbs, and said she was unable to earn her living. She had two married sistern here, who were unable to keep her, and she wished to go Home to her mother. After a discussion it was decided that the Board could not entertain the request, there being nothing to guarantee that the applicant would be cared for at Home, and not shipped back again by the Poor Law authorities, as bad been done with a family shipped Home at a cost of £50., In reply to a .request- for other assistance, the chairman said if she made application m tho usual form it would be reported on. Mr Gillingham remarked that before tbe passing of the Aot such cases righted themthemselves — people's friends kept them somehow ; but now the tendency was increasing to throw everything on the Board. A letter from the Mastorton Board explained that that board was not responsible for statements appearing m a local paper about inhuman treatment of a woman sent from South Canterbury to Wellington. Tho Board expressed the opinion that sho was a case which had no business to be shunted on to Wellington, particularly from the known character of the woman. Ourious complications hove arisen ovov a Geraldine case. A young girl was confined of an illegitimate child, which became a charge on the board. The Board made arrangements to board out the child at 6s a week, under a written agreement. Tbe girl is now married, but not to the father of her child. Her husband becomes legally liable to support the child, but is not compellable to piy for it under tbe Board's agreement, and the person who has the child (now 4 years old) refuses to cancol the bargain made with her. —The matter was referred .to the local members to try and effect same arrangoment. A claim from St Andrews for nursing a girl m her confinement, £5 2s, was considered excessive, and it was resolved to offer £3. In connection with this case correspondence addressed the Defence was read complaining of inattention on the part of the polios in ' discovering and ■ reporting tbe whereabouts of the father of the child. The chairman reported another troublesome case. A man deserted his wife and four children m Melbourne, and came to Timaru ■with another woman. His wife followed him with the children, and now wanted the board to pay her passage back ro Melbourne, her husband to toko charge of the children, which he said he' was quite willing to do, or rather to board them out and be responsible for their cost. . Members considered this a case for the Magistrate to deal with, but it was stated that tbe mother would not prbseoute. flbe was simply determined to get rid of the children. It waa decided tbat the father must take the children from the barracks by Saturday j the mother to trust to her own devices. ' A few minor matters m charitable aid wore disposed of. Hospital accounts, £230 12s 7d, and charitable accounts £147 15s 2d were passed for payment. An account for board of a boy at Burnham was resisted sa excessive and contrary to tbe Board's agreement.