( 49 )
Mr. THURBURN.-I think it would be $2,000 each year.
Dr. Ho KAI-I think that includes first cost. I do not think the running expenses would come to that. I am thinking of course of the first years or so.
THE PRESIDENT.-Do you think it would be better for the Government to supervise them or the College of Medicine?
Dr. Ho KAI-I think it would be better for the Government, if they could afford to have one doctor set apart like the Colonial Surgeon, to supervise them. But if the Government could not spare a man for this duty, then of course the next best thing would be to place the dispensaries under the College of Medicine.
THE PRESIDENT.-If the Government paid a certain sum to the College of Medicine it would undertake to look after the working of the scheme?
Dr. Ho KAI-Yes; I think so, The students would be entirely under the College of Medicine.
Meeting held 26th February, 1895.
Present.-Dr. KNOTT, Deputy-Inspector General, R.N.H., Chairman.
Surgeon-Colonel A. F. PRESTON.
Hon. A. McCONACHIE.
Dr. JAMES CANTLIE.
Absent. Mr. J. THURBURN.
Mr. HUGH MCCALLUM, Superintendent and Secretary, Sanitary Board, called.
THE PRESIDENT.-Will you tell the Committee who performs the duties of Medical Officer of Health for the Colony?
Mr. MCCALLUM.-So far as they are performed they are performed by the Colonial Surgeon; that is so far as I am aware.
Dr. CANTLIE.-Has Dr. AYRES been relieved, since your appointment, of any of his duties? Did you take over any of the work he formerly performed ?
Mr. MCCALLUM.---I took over a good deal of it. That is, in supervising the work of the Inspectors of Nuisances and so on.
Dr. CANTLIE.-Did the Colonial Surgeon have to look after the whole of the sanitary work prior to your appointment?
Mr. MCCALLUM.-It lay between him and the Surveyor General.
Dr. CANTLIE.-Was he responsible for it or the Surveyor General ?
Mr. MCCALLUM.-That I cannot tell. It was a case of divided responsibility, and that, I believe, was the reason for the creation of the Sanitary Department. It was created in 1883. I was the first secretary.
THE PRESIDENT.-Does Dr. AYRES not perform those duties now?
Mr. MCCALLUM.-I really do not know what duties he performs.
THE PRESIDENT.-But he is Medical Officer to the Sanitary Board, is he not?