CONTRARY STATEMENTS.

West Coast Times, Issue 1325, 21 December 1869, Page 2

CONTRARY STATEMENTS.

To the Editor oj the West Coast Times

and Observer. Sin— l feel it my duty to take up my pen to vindicate the Totara District Hospital ( 'ommittee against the charge made on them in your leading article of yesterday. Wiih all due respect for the feeling of sympathy towards the Ilokitika Hospital Committee expresssd in your " leader," I beg to take exception to statements therein made concerning Ross. The article in question says: — ''At Ro^s, again, the Hospital Committee have, &c." (vide leader "***" iv question.) The wiiter of the above will do well not to procure any more information from the same source, or, to be quite sure that it is authentic before publishing it to the world as truth ; for he has certainly been misled this time. That the Ross Hospital Committee have " stood on their dignity " is true, in its highest and noblest sense, the result of which is, they have supported an hospital of their own for the last four years, what no other place in the County has done ; and they now have to their credit (taking into account reliable assets) over two hundred pounds (£200). That this committee " have acted ' Little Pedlington' just about as much as it is possible," if it be meant thereb' tl at they have acted in a mean and contemptible manner, is not true in any measure. Such may be the estimate formed of them by the Editor of the West Coast Times, or by the Hokitika Hospital Committee, and even the public of Hokitika ; but the llo'-s people think differently, and have an idea that their view of the thing is entitled to as much respect as that of their neighbors. We " Arabs of the Desert" fail to see the " Little Pedlington " in retaining and maintaining the sick and suffering of our district, which we have done, with a very few exceptions, for the :ast f jur years. I Never, since the erection of our 11. spital, has there been a dispute or squabble as to whose duty it is to support it or how it is to be done. Under the old dispensation we r.iiscd one-half of the requisite sum in our own district, and grate- RC fully received the other half from the Government, but. under present reaulations the Government deal more uueinuy.min us, giving two-thirds of the entire, cost, . requiring us to procure the one-thh%l only. ' The^s conditions we have cheerfully ai d \ faithfully kept from the beginning to this present time, and will earnestly endeavtr to do so in future. Allow me to ask, Mr Editor, has Hokitika done so much for its liospital ? There is a quaint adage in. vogue among the dwelleis of this woody region, which, perhaps, the people of tl c great metropolis of the Western Coast mny have the ingenuity to interpret and apply — it is this: "Nothing is easier than 10 see a straw "in another's eye, while the most difficult thing in the world is to see a bunch of -radishes in your own."

I apprehend it is in the following that the " Little Pedlington " complained of manifests itself — " The local committee (Ross) have no scruple in sending bad or dangerous cases to the Hokitika Hospital, but they seem to have the stsongest- possible objection to paying for them." If this be true, the Ross committee deserve all the censure that can be heaped upon them. Hut it is not true in any part. We do scruple to send "bad or dangerous cases to the Hokitika I lospital," and on the following grounds — 1. We have a surgeoikwarden, and matron to pay whether our Hospital be full or empty. 2. jWe have the fullest confidence in the surgical and medical skill of our medical officer. And this " scruple " has operated so powerfully that we have not sent one s ilitary patient to the Hokitika Hospital for more than two years. When ours was an emergency Hospital, previous to the separation of Westland from Canterbury, we did occasionally send a "bad or dangerous "case to Hokitika, the treatment of which was a tax on the government, and not on the people of Hokitika. Those patients alleged to come from Ross, aud with whom the Hokitika committee wish to charge us, were not sent by the committee here, and, indeed, we have'not the slightest knowledge of the persons named, excepting one who was sent to the Lunatic Asylum by the lesident Magistrate's Court to be cared for as a man of unsound mind, and not to be treated as a patient in the Hospital, and is a charge on the Government, and not on the Hospital Committee. Whether the other persons came from Ross or not we don't know ; they may be fiona this dihtrict, but we have no proof of that p they were never " scut" by any one connected with this Hospital. Should Ross ever have occaMouto send a '' bad or dangerous case" to he treated in the Ilokitika Hospital, the " local coin i.ittee" will feel . it their bounden duty to pay the cost of the same to the uttermost farthing, and this duty you will find them most cheerful and punctual in fulfilling. Now, Mr Editor, what " Little Pedlington" is there about that ? ' r

There are. several other points in your Article which require notice, but I refrain from saying any more at present, fearing I shall occupy too much of your space. lam, A MEMBER OF THE TOTARA DISTRICT HOSPITAL COMMITTEE. Ross, December 16, 1869.