Maroh 12, 1898.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
are unable on
.: 187
THE POST OFFICE QUESTION AGAIN,
I.
“ plying sixteen more beds which would | memorial being to provide proper accom- "be distinctly remunerative." The words modation and attendance for those whose
'distinctly remunerative" suggest that the proposed new Hospital is also to be in a themselves. It would be the duty of the means do not allow them to provide it for measure a commercial undertaking com- committee to see that this object was properly peting with the private institution alluded kept in view and that the poor were not to in Dr. ATKINSON's first letter. Such crowded out by the well-to-do. competition strikes us as unfair, undesir able, and out of keeping with the character of a Jubilee Memorial. The idea of the subscribers, we think, was that they were contributing to an institution for the benefit of those who account of their straightened means provide themselves with proper attention to and comfort in cases of serious illness. But in Dr. ATKINSON's letter with reference to the proposed purchase of Craigieburn it will be seen that the predominant idea in his mini is to provide a sanitarium for Government officials, more particularly the staff of the Government Civil Hospital, and for private paying patients, the idea of the Women's and Children's Hospital being made subordinate thereto. "Undoubtedly, says Dr. ATKINSON, an institution of this sort, at the higher levels, under the ad- ministration of the Medical Department, "would prove a great boon not only to the Government officials temporarily in capacitated by illness, but also to the "members of the community who avail themselves of the opportunities afforded at present at the Government Civil Hospital Another most important 'advantage would accrue to the colony by this procedure, viz., the fact that the nurs ing and medical stuff of the Hospital would "be able to recuperate in health when "living and working at such an institution." All this, commendable as the ideas may be in themselves, is foreign to the idea of the Jubilee Hospital for Women and Children, which was intended to be an institution with a distinct existence of its own. If the in- stitution is to be a mere appendage to a sanitarium for Government officials it will lose its individuality and its character as a permanent memorial of Her Majesty's long reign.
rule, supposing they took the proceedings of | our courts as a standard and test. But they never think about such things. What they appreciate in our rule is the fact that the honest man can go about his daily business with a sense of security and freedom from oppression and extortion. The average na- tive looks upon the courts as very good places to keep clear of, and if he has ever heard of the Privy Council he will cherish a fervent hope that he may never have to spend his substance there. The great majority of the cases that go to the Privy Council are cases turning on dry questions of law, and in which considerations of abstract justice scarcely come into play at all. They are nearly all civil suits between wealthy corporations in which the decision turns upon purely technical points, and in which the sense of justice would not be outraged whichever way the decision went. The function of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is not to correct the injustice of local courts, but simply to decide disputed questions of law, which is a different thing, for law and justice are not always synonymous. If justice is the test by which the natives judge our rule it is rather the justice that characterises the executive than the justice administered in our courts. Mr. ROBINSON, when he said it was freedom that was the secret o. the empire, came nearer the mark than Mr. DRUMMOND. But when we talk of the freedom and justice of our rule we must not forget that there .dark pages in
our history of empisef Our rule in Australia has resulted in the practical extermination of the natives in some of the colonies, and in the others they are gradually disappearing, In South Africa also the treatment of the natives has not always been strictly conformable with the principles of justice. Our rule in India, too, to which Mr. DRUMMOND made special reference, is not, as he represents, dependent upon the natives' appreciation of our justice, but upon force. The fact that a compara tively small army suffices to hold the coun- try is due, not to the existence of the Privy Council, but to the racial and religious divi- sions and animosities of the inhabitants, which prevent their acting unitedly; that the position is not free from danger, however, is proved by the Indian mutiny, which is his- torically a thing of yesterday, and by the uneasiness caused a couple of years ago by the tree-daubing scare. It is by the strong right hand of England's sous that the em- pire has been won, and it is by the same means that it must be retained; its reten- tion is no doubt rendered easier by the observance of justice in our dealings with native races, but justice without force would be a broken reed to rely upon.
"
are some
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE JUBILEE HOSPITAL.
In his letter to the Colonial Secretary suggesting that Craigieburn should be ac- quired for the purposes of the Jubilee Hospital for Women and Children Dr. ATKINSON Wrote:- "There is at present a private hospital at the Peak, but its "sphere of usefulness is necessarily limited, "and as in the main it is a commercial “undertaking the benefits to be derived from an annexe such as this [Craigieburn] to the "Medical Department of the colony must “be evident to all who seriously consider "the matter." In his reply to the questions of the Colonial Secretary asking for further information Dr. ATKINSON says Craigieburn would be an annexe to the Government Civil Hospital "by sup-
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The suggestion made by " Pro Bono Pub- Saturday with reference to the Post Office lico" in our correspondence columns on will, we think, be generally accepted as eminently sensible. If the Post Office is to remain on the present site there would that is wanted is more space, and by throw- seem to be no need for rebuilding. All ing the present Supreme Court building into the Post Office that requirement would be amply met. has thought of this before. The proposal The wonder is that no one to transfer the Post Office to another site necessarily involved the erection of a new building, and when subsequently it was proposed to retain the present site the idea of having a new building still survived, to the exclusion of the more sensible idea of adapting the existing buildings to the in- creased requirements of the colony. A small portion of the Supreme Court building is already occupied by the Postal Depart ment, and when the whole becomes avail- able, in addition to the present Post Office, the Department will have all the space facility for convenient arrangement, the it can possibly require and every large halls of the Supreme Court being does not call for a great number of separate well adapted for post office work, which rooms, but large halls divided into com- partments by screens. Provided the Post Office is to remain ou its present site, there fore, the only possible reason for erecting a new building would be to obtain improved alone, is a luxury for which the colony architectural effects, and that, standing When the Hospital was decided upon large sum
would not be justified in expending the it was considered advisable to place it The present buildings are not unsightly, that rebuilding would cost. under Government control as offering the while structurally they are in good con best guarantee for continuity in the addition and will be serviceable for many ministration. It might, perhaps, be well. years to come. The idea of rebuilding may to reconsider that point, of making the Hospital Government present at all events.
and instead therefore very well be dropped, for the institution place it under the control five years before the new Law Courts It will be four or of a committee with the Principal Civil Medical Officer as chairman, such of the be done in connection with the erection can be ready, and in any case nothing could private practitioners as were willing to serve of a new Post Office on the sites of the being members of the committee, with one or present Post Office and the present two representatives of the community at large. Supreme Court until the legal depart- The Alice Memorial and Nethersole Hos-ments have entered on possession of their pitals are efficiently managed by a com- mittee and there seems no good reason why should be thought desirable to transfer the new premises. If when that time arrives it the Jubilee Hospital for Women and Chil- Post Office to the Praya Reclamation site dren should not be conducted on similar the existing buildings will meet the require- lines, as regards its management. There is, ments of the department during the period we believe, a very general wish that the the new building is in course of erection, patients in the hospital should enjoy the while if, on the other hand, it should be privilege of being attended by their own thought desirable to retain the Office on its doctors, which is not allowed in the Govern- present site (with the inclusion of that now ment hospitals, but might very well be al- occupied by the Supreme Court) it would lowed in an institution managed by a repre- be found, we think, that the existing build- sentative committee. There would then beings would suffice, or at least the question no complaint that the Government was en- gaging in an unfair competition. with the
of rebuilding could be approached de private practitioners, and the existing pri- vate hospital at the Peak might perhaps by arrangement acorporate with the new institution. Accommodation could then be provided for private paying patients of different classes, and ther would, of course, be a certain number of free beds, the primary object of the institution as a Jubilee
II.
novo.
In another column will be found a letter by the Hon. R. D. OrмSBY, Director of Public Works, correcting a misunderstanding of a remark he made in the Legislative Council. The subject was the site of the new Post Office. In connection with hon. gentleman had just to the proposed purchase o
subject the made a reference of Beaconsfeld,