July 21, 1897.]
which we will not venture an opinion; our purpose is rather to direct attention to one or two points upon which Shanghai's ex- perience may with advantage be considered by Hongkong.
From an article in the China Gazette we learn that the receipts of the Experimental Nursing Home for the first half of the pre- sent year were Tls. 665, while the expendi- ture amounted to about Tls. 2,000. The figures for the short time the institution was in operation in 1896 are also given, but they include all the preliminary expenses, while the income had scarcely commenced, so that it would serve no useful purpose to introduce them here: At the commence ment of the present year, however, the institution was in full working order, and, contrary to expectations, it has failed to cover its working expenses, showing instead a loss of some Tls. 1,300 for the half-year. Whether this loss was caused by the scale of fees being too low, by the nurses not having been fully employed, or by their having been engaged on nécessitous non-paying cases is not stated: Information on these points would be useful in arranging the working scheme of the Hongkong Nursing Institute.
▾
In the same article our contemporary gives the receipts and expenditure of the Shanghai General Hospital, which, it appears, is more than self-supporting. In 1896 the receipts were Tls. 27,034. Of this sum Tls. 2,000 were contributed by the General Municipal Council; and Tls. 1,000 by the French Council. These donations, however, are after all more apparent than real, as we find that only Tls. 776 of the Tls. 2,000 remained after the cost of treating and maintaining poor patients sent in by the General Muni- cipal Council, and Tls. 297 out of the Tls. 1,000 on account of patients sent in by the French Municipal Council. The total amount contributed by paying patients during the year was Tls. 25,317 out of the Tls. 27,034. Against this, the expenditure was Tls. 20,925, leaving a balance of Tis. 5,984 to the credit of the Hospital upon the year's working. The Hospital grant to the ten nursing Sisters of Charity for the year -is Tls. 2,000; to the Physician (non-re- sident) Tls. 1,800; to the Secretary Tls. 600; pay to two European warders Tĺs. 933, making in all Tls. 5,633 for the working staff. From the above figures it would seem that the Shanghai General Hospital is main- tained mainly by and for paying patients, and we believe we are correct in saying that the patients may be and in most cases are attended by their own doctors. The Hongkong Government Civil Hospital is on a different basis. That institution was originally intended for the medical treatment of officers and sailors of the mercantile marine, members of the Colonial Government Service, and those suffering from accidents brought in by the Police. Provision is, however, made for private paying patients, and there has been an increasing demand upon it by this class, especially since the introduction of lady nurses. The annual expenses of the Hospital come to between sixty and seventy In 1895 thousand dollars per annum. the number of patients treated was 2,283, of whom 498 were private paying patients. The fees received from the latter amounted to $15,895. Unlike the Shanghai General Hospital, in the Hongkong Government Civil Hospital private practitioners are not allowed to treat patients. Thus if a patient of Dr. X, unable to obtain proper nursing in his own quarters, has to go into the hospital, Dr. X loses the case and the attendent fees, which go to the Gov- ernment, whereas the Shanghai Hos- pital may be regarded as a co-operative
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT:
institution in which all the practitioners of on an equal footing and the place are manage their own cases, except that one of them draws an honorarium of Tls. 1,800 for treating destitutes and superintending the general arrangements.
|
|
83
think, the Committee has somewhat over- shot the mark, as also has our Shang- hai morning contemporary, which, in
on the subject, says: an rticle "We hear a great deal of the perfect "trustworthiness of the Chinese in com- "mercial matters; a late manager here of The reception of private paying patients by
"the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank made the Governinent Civil Hospital has always,
a statement publicly once on the subject we understand, been regarded by the private
an unfair "that has become classical; but the Taotai's practitioners of Hongkong as
"decision upsets this altogether." The ques- competition, but one which they were not inclined to resent while the nursing ad- tion of the liability of Chinese shareholders in Public Companies registered under Eng- vantages were in a large number of cases so much greater than could be obtained lish law, or the law of any other country, outside. For some years past, however, a is a very important one and must be private hospital has been successfully con- pressed to a satisfactory conclusion, but it is a mistake to say that because in the ducted at the Peak, and it is believed that had it not beeu for the competition meantime the Chinese Courts refuse to re- of the Government Civil Hospital a hospital cognise Company law all transactions between for paying patients, to which any doctor Chinese and foreigners are imperilled, or to might send his cases and where he might say that the question has any bearing on Chi- nese commercial morality. It may be safely treat them himself, would long ago have been established. So far as the patients said that there is not a single English share- holder in the Bank who would not gladly themselves are concerned, it is hardly con- ceivable that they could be better off than avail himself of any legal loop-hole to evade in the admirably conducted Government in- payment of calls to liquidate its indebted- Dess. The feeling of Imuris shareholders titution, except perhaps in the matter of site and surroundings; but it would seem that the under somewhat similar circumstances is time has arrived when the advisability of | notorious. Also, as regards the. Bank of the Government's continuing its competition | China and Japan, au American shareholder with private practitioners should be taken has so far successfully resisted a suit brought The Euro- against him for the payment of calls; but into serious consideration. pean community is rapidly growing, an appeal in that case is, we believe, still more rapidly pending, and it remains to be seen whether and is likely to grow
successful in It is hardly possible the shareholder will be in the future. that the Government can go on extending the ultimate result. Assuming that he is its accommodation for private paying successful, however, no one would dream of patients indefinitely, but while the com- making his case an occasion for impugning American commercial morality. The ground petition of the Government exists no one
of the decision given in the United States else is likely to supply it, except on a com- paratively small scale, whereas if the Go- Consular Court at Shanghai was that the vernment competition ceased a self-support- shareholder was absolved owing to what the ing institution for private paying patients Court held to be the illegal action of the might be established on Bowen Road, or at directors. In the case of the Chinese share- the Peak, or in some other eligible locality holders the Taotai holds the participation of away from the Chinese surroundings of the Chinese in foreign Company enterprise to be illegal ab initio and he refuses to entertain Government Civil Hospital.
any claim against them arising out of such | participation, or to assist them in prosecuting any claim against the Company, apparently for similar reasons to those on which an Eng- lish Court declines to enter into the merits of a dispute arising out of an illegal contract, as, for instance, a gambling debt or a contract for the sale and purchase of slaves. Nor is the decision of the Taotai more absurd, looked at simply from a common sense point of view, than was that of the French Consular Court given some four years ago to the effect that a French share- holder in the Bank of China and Japan was not liable for calls because the Bank had not complied with all the requirements of French Our contemporary accepted Company law. that decision at the time as quite regular, The decision, it may be remarked, was reversed on appeal to the Court at Saigon. It is very necessary, also,
The question suggests itself, then, is the Hospital for Women and Children that has been decided upon as a memorial of the Queen's long reign to be used solely for necessitous cases, or is it to compete with the midwifery practice of the private of the colony? If the practitioners hospital caters for paying patients it will no doubt receive them in considerable num- bers, and necessitous cases may be crowded out. The subscriptions to the memorial poured in in a fervour of loyalty without any very precise understanding us to the real scope and object of the hospital, but before proceeding further in the matter it might be well to have this point fully discussed and cleared up; otherwise we may have, in the future, controversy, dissatisfaction, and accusations that the institution has been diverted from its proper purpose.
CHINESE SHAREHOLDERS IN PUBLIC COMPANIES.
In the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee of the Shanghai General Cham- ber of Commerce reference is made to the refusal of the Taotai to entertain claims for calls made upon Chinese shareholders in the Bank of China and Japan, Limited. Having considered a letter from the Act ing Manager of the Bank at Shanghai, the Committe resolved to address. the Senior Consul ou the subject, without entering into the particulars of the Bank case," pointing out the gravity of the situation, in that the decision of the Taotai imperilled all transactions between "Chinese and foreigners." In that, we
|
that a reversal of the Taotai's decision should be secured and that Chinese share- holders should be compelled to fulfil their contracts in respect of the payment of calls, but in the meantime the case as it stands does not afford just ground for a general attack upon the commercial morality of the Chinese, nor has it any bearing upon the sanctity of contracts for the sale and purchase of merchandise, as the remarks of the Committee of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce would seem to imply.
We (Japan Gazette) hear on good authority that H.M.3. Powerful left England on June 29th for the Far East and is expected to join the China Squadron in time for the regatta at Vladivostock on August 27th.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.