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To that question the Colonial Secretary replied as follows:-
"No such written representation was made to the Principal Civil Medical Officer by the Sisters (they are not called Nurses); but under date of the 2nd of July last the Superintendent of the Govern- ment Civil Hospital addressed a letter to the Principal Civil Medical Officer setting forth on behalf of the Sisters reasons why they considered their number should be increased by two. The Superintendent recommended the increase, as did the Principal Civil Medical Officer. The Governor, after investigation, recog- nised that an increase in staff was neccessary, but decided that it should take the form of two additional probationers. This decision was communicated to the Head of the Department, and provision was made accordingly in the Estimates for the current year. In February of this year the Governor enquired whether the extra probationers had been engaged, and he was informed that it had not been found possible to engage them. In these circum- stances the question of the reorganization of the staff of sisters and probationers was again taken up and is being considered at the present time. It is not considered that any useful purpose would be served by laying papers on this subject on the table.”
Now that answer discloses a very strange state of affairs, for it shows that at the beginning of July last, long before our very long and trying summer had come to an end, the strain and stress of work amongst the sisters of the Government Civil Hospital was such that they took a strong and very unusual step in petition- ing for an increase to be male in their numbers, giving definite reasons for asking for that increase, but reasons which the Government has thought fit to withhold from the cognisance of this Council and from the cognisance of the outside public. That request of the sisters did not stand alone, for it was backed up and supported by the recommendation of the two leading Government Medical Officers, namely, the Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital and the Principal Civil Medical Officer. And one would have imagined that only one answer could possibly have been given to the request of the sisters, backed up as it was by the recommendations of the two leading Government officers a telegram promptly sent home to the Colonial Nursing Institute for the dispatch of two sisters from England. We are now told, however, that nothing of that sort was done, and that your Excellency decided to disregard that request of the sisters and the recommendations of the medical officers of the Government and, instead to engage two probationer nurses in the place of two trained and qualified nurses from home. I sent in a question, Sir, to be answered at this meeting, asking for what reason that decision was arrived at, and although that question has been ruled out, I am still not without hope that some explana- tion of that decision will be forthcoming this afternoon, and that it may be given for the benefit of the members of this Council and the outside public. It is, of course, cheaper to obtain probationers than trained nurses, but in this matter efficiency ought surely to have been preferred to economy, and surely the promptest action ought to have been taken to remedy the evil instead of the periodical and wholly fruitless advertisements for probationers which are set out in the answers given to me to-day to my first question. The net result of what has been done, Sir, is that ten months of time has been absolutely and entirely wasted, and we find ourselves now, at the beginning of another hot season, with its liability to recurrent epidemics, no further forward than we were at the beginning of July last, when this request was made by the sisters and backed up by the leading Government Medical Officers. It seems to be admitted, Sir, although one has not had a long time to study it, in answer to my question 2 that probationers do require a considerable amount of supervision during their first year of employment as proba- tioners, and therefore, Sir, I wholly fail to see how, under these circumstances, two probationers could have been considered, fairly and properly, an efficient substitute for two trained nurses out from home. With regard to the two sisters having recently married, we are informed in the answers given to my questions just now, that the place of one of them only has been filled up, and so far as I can see the Government has avoided answering part of my sixth question on that subject altogether. Part of my sixth question was, "How long before such marri- ages did the Government know that they would take place ?" and not the smallest