Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 346, 11 April 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

A 1-ortnigiit a'^o we called attention to a leader in the " Otago Daily Times" on Dr. Webster's resolutions in the Provincial Council on the Dunedin Hospital. The worthy Doctor- aims at placing the Dunedin Hospital on the same fooling as those np-conntry, i.e., instead of its being supported entirely by the Government, it be subsidised like the others. To this onr contemporary is resolutely opposed, and, as we think, sacrifices both justice and reason in maintaining this opposition. He keeps one eye open to any consideration of however trivial n character that would tend to ooufirm the existing favoritism towai'ds the Dnnedin institution, but the o.ther is persistently shut to any consideration that would place it on an equality with kindred institutions up-country. This we noted in -Mtt-(Tr*trtwti«lii2 — O« — tlix>_iat_in J sta.iiJ;_aijr_ COnlein[J<>icvirj-rc(vurnccl to tlie cliargo, ajid judging from the boldness of his criticisms he seems to think that the question ought to be settled by his pointing out that the resolutions of Dr. Webster are impracticable and inconsistent Avith each other. Now, supposing these resolutions to be as crude as he represents them to be — supposing them to he a.s self-contra-dictory and impracticable : this affects the merits of the question no more than the color of a horse affects its fitn'^s for harness or the paddle. The occupation of such ground is on the part of the v.riter a piece of mere subterfuge — of arrant Torryism — that deprecates change because it is change, no matter how loudly justice and truth cali for it. All that is urged on behalf of the medical staff employed in the Dunedin Hospital, and the general management, may be quite true, and yet it has no bearing upon the question as to the justice of supporting the Dnnedin Hospital entirely from the public funds, and only subsidising the kindred institutions. To us the resolutions submitted to the Provincial Countil are neither so impracticable nor so self -contradictory as they appear to our contempory ; but if they were, that cannot be accepted as a reason why i he question should be bowled out of the Provincial Council at its next sitting. One would suppose from our contemporary that there was no such thing as mixed institutions of the sort anywhere, and especially none in Otago. Whereas the very reason that these resolutions have been introduced, is the existence of such institutions in up-country districts. Nay, under his very eyes, had lie not persistently shut them against everything that bore against his object, there is t.lxe Benevolent Institution. S'irely onr contemporary will not say that that works badly. If it can be shown then, that a mixed institution .works equally as well as a purely state supported one, then all the fine reasoning of the "Daily Times" proves fallacious, when the question submitted is not as to the working of these institutions, but as to the justice of favoring the Dnnedin Hospital over those iip-coniitry. Jtf this is unjust, and we do not hesitate to say that the •' DailyTimes " has presented no satisfactory argument to prove the justice of the existing arrangements, then, we ask, are there no wise men in the Council to call ' for the rales of such institutions already in existence, and by- their help frame a constitution practicable and workable in every respect for a mixed institution 1 Perhaps our con.'emporarv, who can detect the impracticable so easily, will pronounce this also impracticable. Hut we beg to remind him that the question is not to be pooh-poohed out of court in this fashion. Tt has been matter of complaint, and justly so, thatjjithe provincial funds in all the provinces have been lavished on the provincial towns and their surroundings, to the neglect of outlying districts. This has giveu rise to bitterness and divisions in the past history of the colony. The outlying districts have had to struggle with limited means, and with a minimum dole from the public exchequer. They have been far from receiving their just share ; and what they have received has buen viewed more in the light of a favor than of a right. .Moreover, our Land Laws have hitherto been of a nature to restrain rather than encourage settlement. Our powers of contributing have been limited rather than fostered, and with all that we have this further inequality laid upon us that we have to contribute a moiety of the fnnds required by onr Hospital. It is high, time iliat this inequality was ter-

initiated. This is a. view of the subject, however, which our contemporary ignores: and yet, with the tokens of wealth around him, in the splendid places of business — the abounding luxuries displayed in the shops and markets of the town — the abundance of villa-like, if not palatial residences — the splendid public buildings, raised at the public expense, ought to have led to a different conclusion. We cannot lose sight of the fact that but for the struggles of the energetic who have pushed their way into the interior and developed the resources of the country, Dunedin would not have obtained its present rank, and we claim more consideration on behalf of those who- have penetrated into the deepest solitudes, prospecting for gold and other minerals, and developing them, converting the wilderness, in part, into fields of golden grain, and rearing on the remainder of it that wool which forms so extensively a part of our exports, and without which our imports would |be few. We would remind our contemporary that Dunedin has its backing in these very parties, and-that it is paltry to claim for Dunedin, the tokens of whose wealth are so manifold, what he withholds from those who are poor in comparison. To onr mind there would be more justice in reversing this order of things, in calling upon Dunedin to supply the moiety of its hospital expenses, and in rendering the np-country Hospitals purely State aided.