Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 591

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Mr. THURBURN. So the risk of having only two men at the Civil Hospital is that when one is away the work is not properly done and it means overwork for the man who is there ?

Dr. Lowson. Certainly; and I take it that in an Hospital, especially one under a Colonial Government, a man should have a few spare minutes in the day to do some- thing original, to look through a microscope or something like that; I have not had time to do that except at night after everything is finished.

Mr. THURBURN. And it is very seldom you can get outside doctors to assist ?

Dr. Lowson. They would assist if paid for it; but at the present moment and during the last year I have had to ask Dr. BELL, as a personal favour, to do Hospital work, and lately Surgeon-Major READE has done work on Sundays. I must have some leisure time, and they have done this work out of pure friendship. While I was sick the Government paid Dr. BELL to do the work.

Mr. THURBURN.--In case of leave, it is, I suppose, a very difficult thing to get these men; of course, they would not be available. It would be difficult, for instance, in the present circumstances, to get a ship's doctor?

Dr. Lowson.-You could get them if you paid a decent salary. They are difficult to get but a knowing man could get them. You cannot expect a man to leave his ship where he has £7 or £10 a month with his messing and everything free, to do Hospital work here for a little more salary, because at the Hospital he would have to pay for everything.

Mr. THURBURN.-But is it not a difficulty to get doctors at all?

Dr. Lowson. Well, they are under engagements, but occasionally you find a man not under engagement and occasionally men sign off here. If men coming here from Vancouver or Australia were told that there was a chance of getting an engagement at the Civil Hospital they would not sign on provided they got a salary they could exist on.

Dr. CANTLIE. In the event of your being ill, it is a very difficult thing to get a man to take your place on twenty-four hours' notice?

Dr. Lowson.-You cannot get anyone.

Dr. CANTLIE. Very few doctors, as a matter of fact, sign on here, and it is practically impossible to get a man here?

Dr. LowsON.-That is so. In the case of a man taking leave, he generally gives a certain amount of notice, say a couple of months, if he is going on leave, and then there is time to arrange for some one to come and take his place. But the Government won't be able to get a man unless they pay him a decent salary.

THE PRESIDENT.-Last summer, did any medical men offer their services?

Dr. Lowson. During the plague the first thing I did was to stop my brother. I wrote up to the Colonial Secretary through the Colonial Surgeon and said I urgently desired that my brother should be stopped and kept here at a salary of $200 a month. We got an immediate reply, No. I then wrote a private letter to the Governor's A.D.C. in which I practically said that it was simply suicidal to send away a doctor at that time, and the Governor replied by telephone "I agree to your proposal."

The next man to turn up was Dr. MOLYNEUX. I engaged him at $500 a month. I asked Dr. AYRES' sanction about it. At that time we were advertising for medical officers at $350 a month and expenses. It was useless to ask for authority in a lot of these things, be- cause there was a good deal of trouble and if we had waited for sanction the plague might have been going on yet. These two doctors I got by my personal influence, and Dr. AYRES got reprimanded!! I think the Government ought to have been able to pay $1,000 a month at that time without flinching.