( 36 )
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-Do not you look upon your position in this light--that your sole services are sold to the Government and that they can call upon you to do what they like?
Dr. Lowson.-To a certain extent, but there is a limit to these things. If a man is appointed to a special post as I was, and filthy, dirty work is thrown upon him which is repulsive to the ordinary man, then I say a man ought not to be called upon to do what work unless he is paid for it.
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-I have not the least doubt the Government would not seek to throw a good deal of extra work upon a man if his time has been hitherto pretty well employed, but if he had plenty of leisure before and he is asked to do a little extra duty I think he should do it willingly.
Dr. Lowson. I am with you there-but we have not plenty of leisure. I go and do the work Dr. AYRES tells me to do. I have gone to the Tung Wah to investigate cases of fever; but it is a different thing if you are going to throw two hours of extra work upon a man regularly in the Tung Wah Hospital. If it were allotted to me I would have to work daily from nine till nine.
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-The Government would not ask you to do that.
Dr. Lowson. That is a matter of opinion entirely.
Mr. THURBURN.—But would it not be the easier way to have the Colonial Surgeon over all the men and allow him to arrange the work so that no man would have too much?
Dr. Lowson. In one way that is done at present. I presume these appointments are made after consultation with Dr. AYRES. I would put the whole medical staff of the Colony under the Colonial Surgeon.
Dr. CANTLIE.--You could not put the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony under the Colonial Surgeon.
Dr. Lowson. The Medical Officer of Health for the city ought to have full powers to conduct prosecutions for contraventions of the health laws without asking the Colonial Surgeon's opinion, but these are only matters of detail. The Colonial Surgeon should be the superior medical officer of the Colony.
Dr. CANTLIE.-But supposing we get a Medical Officer of Health for the city-the Colonial Surgeon represents that at present-and if we take away his work at the Tung Wah Hospital, the Colonial Surgeon would have nothing to do but to attend to the Policemen's wives?
Dr. Lowson. The question of whether Dr. AYRES is the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony is not for me to decide. If he is or has been, I think it would have been better for the Colony if his opinions had been paid more attention to. In addition to the Policemen's wives he has all the subordinate Government servants. There are the Portuguese, the Eurasians, and in fact all the Government servants under $2,000 a year. They have all got to be seen and it is a pretty big order, when you look down the lists in the Estimates. He has much more work than some people are aware of he does not talk of every difficulty he has to meet with. He has also got to conduct the correspondence and I know since I have had to act as Superintendent of the Civil Hospital there is a lot of absolutely useless writing work; but it has to be done.
THE PRESIDENT.-If there were a Health Officer for the Colony who do you think should advise the Government in sanitary matters?
Dr. Lowson.-The Health Officer of the Colony, the same as at home. I think you want a Colonial Surgeon to supervise all the work and to look after the writing; some of it is paltry work I grant you but Government say it has to be done.