The Waipawa Mail FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1883. COUNTY INSTITUTIONS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume 5, Issue 482, 27 April 1883, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1883. COUNTY INSTITUTIONS.

A rather vulgarly expressed, but pithy Scotch proverb, enjoins the desirability of keeping “your ain fishguts to your ain sea-maws.” In other words, the proverb teaches that it is one’s duty to provide first for one’s own belongings, or, as the English form of the same idea puts it:—“Charity begins at home.” It does not follow that charity should also “ end” at home, but it is decidedly the most obvious of truths that the duty nearest at hand is the duty requiring first attention. These somewhat trite remarks—or remarks that would be trite if a large number of persons did not need continual urging to be just—are prompted by a glance at the published balance-sheet of the County Hospital. The first item among the receipts is one of £139 19s 9d from subscriptions and donations. Now it must strike the most casual observer that £139 19s 9d as a total of the contributions to the Hospital, from the whole of Waipawa County, is a small sum indeed. There were 5867 persons residing within the boundaries of the County when the census of 1881 was taken. That number has, at the least, risen by this time to 6000. Now if there were to be only the small average contribution of Is per head of the population, or 5s per average family, given yearly to the Hospital, the total would bo £3OO per annum, or more than double what was received during last quarter. It may be said that we are arguing against our own contention, and that last quarter’s receipts, multiplied by four, would give the respectable total of £559 19s, which is again nearly double the yearly sum we put down as the least that should be contributed by the County, viz., £3OO per year. But it would be a mistake for any one to take last quarter’s receipts as an average by which to estimate the receipts for the year. Last quarter’s receipts, unfortunately, represent nearly the whole of the money received for a year, because most of the people who forward donations do so in the first quarter of the year. Take the receipts, for example of the last quarter in 1882, which were only £ll 13s. Adding that sum to the amount received during the quarter just expired, the total would be £lsl 12s 9d for six months. Now even that average would not be so bad if it would hold good as an average for a year, but it will not. Nearly the whole of the money from subscriptions flows in, as we said above, during the first quarter of the year, and it is erring on the side of liberality in estimating when we set down the average receipts of the County Hospital from donations at £2OO per year. That is just about one-third of the least sum that should represent Waipawa County generosity. There are at the lowest estimate 1200 male adults in the County, and the smallest sum that should stand as the total of their contributions is £6OO yearly—los per adult male—2s per head of the population. The institution is the most deserving one in the County, and none are now so well placed that they can guarantee for themselves immunity from the need of seeking its benefits. Wo hope our remarks may have the effect of of stimulating many persons to subscribe who hitherto have not done so. Possibly a few facts relative to the good being done by the Hospital will also have a similar or better effect, and in that hope we append the following : During last quarter 28 patients were admitted, making, with / who remained in from last quarter, a total of 35 under treatment. Of these, 26 were discharged as cured or relieved, and 9 remained in on the Ist of April. It will therefore be noticed that no deaths have to be recorded for this quarter. In making an analysis, it is found that of the 35 patients, 26 were men and 9 women, and that their average ages were 36 years and 3 months. Nationalisation stands thus : —English, 14* ; Irish, 8 ; Scandinavian, 8 ; Colonials, 2 ; Welsh, Scotch, and Natives, 1 each. The patient who has

been longest in the Hospital remained 2 years and 111 days. After taking off this patient and one other, the general average duration of a patient’s stay in the institution is 30 days. In conclusion, we can only urge that the Hospital is lacking funds, and that, as a glance at the balance-sheet will show, there is a debit balance at the bank against it. It will not be creditable to Waipawa County if the best and most useful institution within its boundaries should be much longer allowed to “ potter along” in a languishing, hand-to-mouth manner.