1.—13 a.

70

DX. I. HINTKIi.

(//) the Hospital Trustees (in recent years the Charitable Aid Board). In a few instances only — e.g., Professor of Anatomy, Professor of Physiology, and the like-—is the Council not restricted in its choice of its teachers. The whole of the University teaching staff at the Hospital must be selected by the Council from the medical men appointed to Hospital posts by the Charitable Aid Board —a heterogeneous body of laymen. The obvious result is that the University Council becomes microscopic, and the Charitable Aid Hoard fills the landscape. Appointments made by the . Charitable Aid Hoard are for one year only, and the relations between the Council and the Charitable Aid Board were for many years the reverse of amicable. Every year there were strenuous canvassings for Hospital appointments; it became a question of getting votes rather than possessing capability; the members of the Hospital staff and their friends entered into the thick of the battle and became supporters or opponents of the Taction dominant for the time being of the appointing Board. Good work in v medical school is impossible with such earthquakes yearly. In this connection 1 should like to read two letters written to the newspapers by members of the Hospital staff, Drs. W. M. Macdonald and W. Newlands, at the time when Dr. Batchelor offered himself as a candidate for a scat on the University Council: — The University Election. Sik, —In your very {air and reasonable article this morning on thr University election you express regret at the introduction of the personal element, and I therefore wish to make it clear that my opposition to Dr. B?tchelor is in no way personal. Dr. Batchelor claims the suffrages of the graduates on aooount of the qualit} of the work that he has done on public bodies, ami it is precisely on aooounl of the quality of tli.it work that some medical men are atrongly opposed to his election. The quorum pans magna fui attitude thai l>; , . Batchelor adopts towards all the reforms thai have been achieved in i lie Hospital and Medical School may be attributed to the pardonable exuberance of an electioneering manifesto, but we all readily recognize thai he has aooomplished a great deal by his zeal and persistence. If for nothing else than the prominent part he took in persuading the trustees and stall to give up their respective shares in the students' fees in order to establish the laboratory fund lie is entitled to the deepest gratitude of all true friend? of the Medical School. But, unfortunately, while Dr. Batohelor has done a great deal of good, he- has also di in- .• greal deal of harm. It is part of his scheme of reform that he should control all the medical appointment!) in the city. »nd he lias been largely successful m his endeavour. 1 make no suggestion that Dr. Batchelor has been actuated by anj but the highest motives in controlling these appointments; I believe that he has honestly died ii put the besi men into the various positions; but I do sa.y that while the present system of appointment by bodies of laymen obtains it should lie faithfully carried out, and it is intolerable that we should have to submit to a sort of medical dictatorship. Neither in Dimcilin nor any where else would the medical men acquiesce in the appointment of cne of their number as sole selector for all medical vacancies. Dr. Batchelor has arrogated to himself his posit inn. and fur thai reason alone I consider that his presence on any public bedy controlling these appointments is a menace to the pea.ee ( f tin medical portion of the community. In making a statement of this kind it is necessary to give epecific instances, but I wish to make it clear that I do not intend to cast any reflection on those who were appointed to the posts. What I wish to insist on is that other perhaps equally good men were prevented from applying, and I need hardly add that 1 was net personally interested in any of the appointments. At the end of lasi year, after thirty years' service in the Hospital, Dr. Batchelor retired without acquainting his colleagues of his intention. The result was that a position carrying indirectly a very high emolument was never . eally thrown open to competition. While Dr. Batohelor was a member oi the Hospital Board, the Board, on his recommendation, made a medical appointment to a, salaried position without advertisement. Dr. Batchelor'B active canvassing on behalf of one of the candidates for another Hospital Board appointment led to a great deal cf ill feeling, and some regrettable incidents took place in connection with the election. Some months ago Dr. Batchelor, without consulting the medical faculty, went to the University Council and announced his intention of retiring. He asked the Council to divide his lectureship into two sections, and. while he may not have intended to nominate his successors, he mentioned the names of two medical men who weie. in his opinion, well qualified to carry on his work. During the time that Dr. Batohelor has sat at the Board of Trustees, and even while he was still a. member of the stall, he has taken an active and prominent part in the selection of the honorary medical staff, and his action in this respect has given rise to much heart-burning and discontent amongst the junior members of the profession. Ido not think that any member of the medical staff who is also a trustee should sit in judgment en his colleagues —I will go further and say that I do not think that any medical member of the trustees should take an active part in making the medical appointments. I might quote further instances', but I think 1 have aaid enough to justify the medical opposition to Dr. B&tchelor's candidature. Private appeals to Dr. Batchekr to discontinue his interference in medical appoint me] ts have resulted in his adopting an attitude of defiance, and have made a public appeal necessary. I am. Sc. Duncdin, sth July. 1909. W. M. Macdonald. The Otaoo Univebsitv Council Election. • SIX, —Much recrimination and many red herrings have resulted from the correspondence in your paper, begun by Dr. Batchelor. in connection with the University Council election. For the graduates, however, the issue is sufficiently clear-out. They have to decide on Saturday whether Dr. Batchelor is a fit and proper person to n present, faithfully and Intelligently, on the Council, their various interests. 1 take it. sir. that when an individual puts himself forward as a candidate for public office, it is pertinent and if prime importance to consider the conduct of that candidate a-s a member of other public bodies. Dr. Batohelor's integrity as a public man has been repeatedly challenged in ver\ definite fashion ; and. notwithstanding his voluminous replies, those challenges have not been met. but have rather been palpably and laboriously evaded. In his latest production of " wild and whirling words," Dr. Batchelor simply runs amok, like any mad Malay courageous with bhang. Until Dr. Batchelor furnishes oateg rioal dispri ofs oi these charges against his public actions, it is needless for any opponent to challenge his capacity for a. scat on the University Council in other respects. 1 am. Jfcc, 29th .Inly. 1009. \V. Xkwi.ands. These letters speak for themselves They show that, under such circumstances as we have depicted, a small number of men. lay or professional or both, connected by ties of blood, associa tion, or interest, band themselves together to control appointments. Naturally no man could be engaged in this sort of intriguing and canvassing without losing that self-respect and keen sense of honour that must lie looked for in a University teacher. Again, the influence of such annual spectacles on young medical students must be disastrous. Nor is it surprising if. undei such oircumstancee, we find those holding the higher posts stooping to questionable methods of extending their influence and interests. Here is a box of pills which you will observe bears the superscription. "Dr. Batchelor's Tonic Iron Pills.' , 1 believe, though 1 have not hail an analysis