West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1897.

West Coast Times, Issue 10530, 14 July 1897, Page 2

West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1897.

HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE.

We do not think it possible to find a local body working under the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act which cannot point out many evils not susceptible of rectification unless the Act i 3 altered. The local bodies which contribute so large a proportion of their funds for charitable aid purposes keenly resent being compelled by the State to make the ratepayers find money for purposes which should be a charge on the taxpay crs as a whole and not on any particular portion. This is one of the radical def eats'of the Acts — the inequity of its operation — and when we come to examine many of the evils met with iv the administration we find they are largelj attributable to the f aultiness of the fundamemtal principle. In the Auckland district stronstfylworded complaints are.being made concerning a practice which has also caused considerable»friction on the West Coast. At the last meeting of the Coromandel Hospital Board, so we learn by telegraph, several accounts from the Auckland Hospital Board for patients who claimed Coromandel as their districl were considered, and members spoke strongly as to the manner in which the3< charges wese sometimes brought aboui under the present system. Thej said thai men could go to Auckland in perfeel health from Coromaudel with theii cheques in their pockets, get on the spree in the city, meet with an accident and b< taken to the hospital, and charges were sent down to Coromandel at the rate oJ 28s per week. The cases have become so numerous, and the charges o£ the Auckland Ho3p'tai Board are considered so ex cessive, that Captain Swindley proposed the following resolution —" That the Auckland Hospital Board be requested tc state afc what price per hundred they ml breab all patients taken in on account oJ claiming Coromaudel as their district, anc regarding whose admission to the Auckland Hospital or otherwise the Coromandel board has no Voice." This was carried. The Chairman of the Bay of Plenty board, in writing to the Auckland board that they had not funds to pay a claim of £32 10s and costs till the end of August, said he was sorry to say that the Auckland board had helped to a con siderable extent iv placing the Bay of Plenty board in such an unfortunate position "by the jndigcrimiuate manner in which it admitted into fko hospital all sorts and conditions of men and wornea. without saying by your leave to the Bay of Pleniy board " Tin's evil has originated from a section ia the Act which casts the burdon of maintenance oa the district of whjch the patient was a resident f oi? 6 months prior to his admission, and tend3jto increase the burdens of the smaller district. When those in charge of a hospital ascertain there willfbe no difficulty as to payment, being Able -Lq .ehargg -the maintenance to another district, they readily admit the patient because the scale of charges enBures that; £he balance of profit and loss ( is, if anything, on thoir' side. This will ' enable residents of country districts to go to the larger hospitals, hoping to get better attention and more expert medical skill than in their own districts, which aro improperly saddled with the costs. This is by far a more common sage than that of the Coromandel man who go.es qh the spree in Auckland and gets his leg brokenIt is hard to deny to those suffering the right of entry into hospitals where they hope to get cured, but it is unfair to make a poor, hospital district pay the cost because some man with a chronic comp,lajnfc has a fancy for making a round of the hospitals. Th? only jyay put of the difficulty that we can see is to make the cost of hospital administration and charitabieiaid fall entirely on the Colonial taxpayer. This would ensure the burdens falling on the shoulders o£ the people in ac^rdancq k with the principle we deem the most equijbabje and would remove the anomalies we have just referred to.

A meeting of the Westland County Cpuncii will be held this afternoon at 2 .o'clock. Tenders for $xq construction of a villa for Mr Jolly close it Malfroy and Co's this day at noon. ' " ' Only one case was called on at the Ma r gistrate's Court yesterday morning before Mr D. Macfarlane, S.M., Robert Whale v. P. Eckmann, claim £2 10s for rent of cottage tenanted by Miss Fowler. Mr Park appeared fqr plaintiff and Mr Lewis for defendant. The defence was a denial of tenancy, defendant .deposing that he had become responsible for rent up to a certain period, which was paid, but he had notified plaintiff that he would not become responsible for any further term. Plaintiff admitted the giving of notice and was ittaaflaiLtnLmiJ-K nn °f n nminqpl'q -foe* 21 q

Further changes in the staff of tfie local 7 • Office are on the tapta, Mr F J. Oliver being destined for I tteefton and Mr Kirk for Napier. Both f are highly efficient officer?, amongst the r most capable we have had in Hokitika, and their removal will be a distinct loss to the public. Tjie complimentary social and dance tendered by the Hokitika Fire Brigade to tne Jadies who assisted at the Bazaar will . be held in the Drill Shed this evening. - uancmg to commence at 8 o'clock. To-day Messrs J. W. Easson & Co are ; opening m their new premises iv Revell street (known as M'Uonnon's shop) with M \ .c. c " tlll ? I y new of furniture etc., which they are going to offer to the public at .very low prices. As inspection j is invited we would recommend our ; m£ i t0 call aud inspect their stock.Ihe branch is now under the mana^eE ment of Mr F. Neale. They will°in ,_ tuture keep a cabinet maker on the pre- . nines when all work entrusted will be c promptly executed. 3 i T i ie , Xra ysin Dr Mackenzie's capable - hands have a powerful influence for good „ We have before us the photograph of a portion of tho foot of a young lady living i in this town in which a piece of needle is seen, close to the bone. We have, also, the piece of needle itself about half an inch m length. It had occasioned a great - deal of pain and suffering for a long time I but its precise locality was not known and consequently the extraction was :- dangerous and difficult. With the X rays c the work is rendered quite simnle. A photograph is taken o£ the foot showing y the position of the foreign substance and i- then in the doctor's skilful hands the exa traction is easily and expeditiously effectsd. Truly this discovery of '■' Riintgen's will be of marvellous benefit s to the human race. c The Westporfc Times says : —Messrs c Ferris and Sullivan proceed to the Bteaphy River, north of Karamea, when the sea moderates, on a prospecting tour c as representatives of a syndicate 'of. ten a townspeople. The men take with them a ton of goods— food, tools and building material — and will build a main camp in c a suitable place, where tho supplies will be p stored. From there they will prospect the country ; Qt the head of the Heaphy and t Karamea rivers, and. under present ar- {■ rangements, will remain until October. t Good alluvial gold and indications of reefs have been obtained in this country, r but there has always been a difficulty in c obtaining supplies. Ferris and Sullivan expect to surmount this drawback by es3 tabliahing a depot upon which they can c always fall back, with an arrangement -f or £ the Nautilus to make periodical calls at the Heaphy. Tho undertaking is being 1 gone about in a business-iike way — Mr . Harden is the secretary— and the promoters are sanguine of success. The prospectors are men ot jtlio right stamp, aud the [ eutire community will wish them success The Hawera branch of the Educational > Institute has refused to allow the shorti hand notes of the evidence given in the , investigation of certaiu charges nvule - against Mr Strack, master of the Hawera I School, to be transcribed for the Waugandi Education Board, on the ground that it would render them liable to criminal ) prcc3Gdingsf for libel on the part of the persons interested or tho witnesses examined. At Westport Constable Brophy arrested a man named Edward Teague, a photographer, on a warrant issued at Reef ton, covering a charge o£ obtaining £1 by false pretences from Simon Pascoe, of Merrijigs. The accused was brought before Messrs Fair and Organ, J.P's., and remandedlto Reefton, to appear on the 1 6th instant. Teague stated that he had taken a photograph and left the negative with Mi- Sherlock, a photographer at R eeEton, to complete, and had proceeded to Lyell and Westport. The weather had been too bad to allow Sherlock to finish the work. Accuse'cl said ijfc was no i;se la's asking for bail as he had no frfends 'in Westport. He was subsequently brought up at" Reef ton and the case dismissed. The Lyell Times reports : — An excellent gruelling was concluded by the tributorsin No. 1 levpl of th.c United Alpine when from 165 tons of leader sfcone they received 189ozs ldwfc of gold, averaging loz 18dwts to ika ton. The party work° ing this tribute, Messrs W. Green, J. Phibbs, J. Leggoo, and C. Morganti, have about 3£ yearsgyet to complete their contract. The crushing has certainly proved a payable one to them, considering the tim§ occupied in procuring the stone, but their last crushing, and whil<? they were opening up and'gbttjng at {.hq etqne, scarcely gave them 3s a day;' They' have everythingfno. w in' working order and may look forward to a series of payable crushings to the end oi their term,

Holloways Ointment and Pills— Sel Help.-— Piior to the discovery of thesi remedies gin easy, ready and rcliabli remedy for outward disfigurations and in ward complications was, practical! i speaking, unknQwn. IJo one need uom be at a loss if they ' should ijtnf^riiu^ateh suffer from piles, ulcers, sores, tumors boils, bruises, sprains, &c. Eaveloprai! Holloway's medicines are very intelligible printed directions for using them, wind should be attentively studied andimmediately followed by all who resort to his treatment. Sooner or later the sufferer will assuredly triumph over the worst diseases. This searching Ointment disperses all those malignant humors which aggravate diseases pf £hq akin, prevent the cicatrization of uleefa arid f exciW inflammatory tendencies in the system. For Blankets, Jackets, Hats, Clothiug, Gloves and Fhunel you can not do better than go to H. Schroder and Son, as great reductions are now made by that firm in prices to effect a clearance. — Advt. The Sputhern Standard, April 3, 1891 eays^— V'Mv _W. Gawne's Worcester ! Ssuce.T-^Fhis is& Ejunedin manufacture, ! and after having tried It, we are |rpe to confess that We eoujd. not tell it from the imported Lea and PerrinV. This being the case, ifc is clearly the duty of colonists to support an important local industry. The day for imported sauces is clearly drawing to a close." A cough is only wprfch eighteen-peneo, for the simple reason jths,t if you invest that sum lit a bottle q£ Tfopd's? '^reat Peppermint Cure for coughs and colds, you can get rid of it straight away—it never fails— every grocer and chemist in the town keeps it. Wholesale agents All merchants and drug firms.— Advt. To make room for next Season's Goo <?s H. Schroder and Son are greatly reducing the Price on all Winter Goods. Now is your time to purchase as H. Schroder & Son are determined to carry over no Winter Goods. — Advt.

It is understood that the long-standin" action of Robert Donald v. the Bank of New Zealand, a claim oE £5000 damages tor lodging an alleged false petition in bankruptcy, will come on fcr hearing at the sittings of the Supreme Court which commence in JBlenheim to-day.

A case in which a woman named Robie died from poisoning at Melbourne recently produced a curious legal difficulty. The first impression was that the woman had committed suicide, but subsequently, on the statement of their seven-year-old sou, the husband was arrested on a charge of murder. It was not alleged that he poisoned the woman, but that be knew &he had taken poison ; that before she swallowed it, in the heat of a quanel, he said " Well, take it," in reply to a threit by the woman to take poison ; that although she was vomiting he dressed and went to choir practice ; that on his return he found his wife hi a state of collapse but did not send for a doctor, and that he induced the child to tell untruths about the circumstances of his mother's death. At a coroner's inquest his counsel submitted that Robie was in no way responsible for his wife's death. She had taken poison of her own free will, and even though Robie knew of that fact he was not liable criminally for auy neglect on his part to provide a doctor or some other means of saving or attempting to save her life. It might be that he had committed a moral wrong. He certainly had committed no legal wrong, aud that was all they had to concern themselves with. He was not bound by law to prevent his wife killing herself, or to attempt to save her when she had taken poison. The counsel for the Crcwn could not remember a legal authority bearing directly upon the question at issue, but he claimed that inasmuch as a master, or ;any person delegated by the master, or under contract, was liable to protect the life of a servant, so a husband should be held responsible for the safety of the life of his wife, who is under contract of marriage with him. The jury's verdict was "Suicide while of sound mind," and Robie was liberated on his own recognisances.

We clip the following important tcsimonial from the " Illawarra Meroury," (N.S, W-) on the 30th March. It needs no comment :— Mr John Loveday, of the Bull mountains, writes to us that after suffering for four years with acute gravel, he has experienced almost complete relief by using Sander and Sons' Eucalypti Extract. He says seeing the said Extract advertised iv the " Illawarra Mercury," his intehsb suffering induced him to obtain a bottle of the medicine from MrHoskiug, chemist, of tins town, and that the use of it gave him great relief at once. He states that between the 10th March instant, when he obtained the first bottle of the cxtractand on the 19fch, the use of that medicine continued to afford him relief, to which he had been a stranger for four years. Mr Loveday writes also that he lms found the Eucalypti Extract a cure for rheumatism as. well as gravel. He requests us to publish this information through the "Mercury." We have much pleasure in complying with Mr Loveday's mjuest, whose word cannot be doubted and who can have no ofojecb in view ofc! cr t: an a pure desire fco benefit suffering humanity." — ADvr

Messrs Webley & Sun, P : auoforto and Organ Tuners, and Repairers are now in Hokitika and will take the earliest opportunity of calling on their customers Address, Red Lion Hotel. —Advt