I.— 13a.

74

(DR. I. HUNTER.

Board of the Hospital. Eight years ago I first wrote to the Charitable Aid Board (and they did what I expected they would do) with regard to the conditions of the out-patient department, of which I had chargeI—that1—that is to say, they did not appoint me again, and took no notice of my suggestions, which I afterwards had published in the paper. The Charitable Aid Board at that time was under Mr. Peter Miller, who had been Chairman for eighteen or nineteen years. It was a straight-out despotism. Mr. Miller did what he liked, and there was no second opinion. Naturally my attack on what was going on there weakened the position of Mr. Miller, and Mr. Miller left in two years. 34. You have made public most of the criticism you have given us to-day?— Practically all of it. 35. Since then have elections taken place to the Board? —Elections take place every year. 36. Since your criticism appeared in the papers elections have taken place for membership of the Board?— Yes. 37. And has no effort been made to deal with the points you have raised in your criticism? — There has been a certain amount of effort, no doubt —that is to say, more has been done in some respects since I started writing than had ever been done before. 38. It has shaken things up?— Certainly. At the present time the Dunedin Hospital has a staff of about twenty-three, and you never know in what positions on the staff you will find these people. Take, for instance, what would have been a proper attitude : the Medical School should have said to itself, "We want training in a certain subject. We will say to a promising young man, ' Go away to Europe; come back at the end of three years with testimonials from a good man to show that you have been doing work in this subject satisfactorily for three years, and we will give you an appointment.' ' If they had an exceptional student who had done special work and could get hold of him they should not wait, lint they should say, " Here is an exceptional man; come at once." 39. Would you advise that the issuing of these diplomas be discontinued until the work that is done is of a higher character ?—No, I should advise that a Royal Commission be appointed. 40. But what is your individual opinion?—My individual opinion is that the thing requires a searching examination and a fresh start on new lines. It is quite impossible to consider all the multifarious considerations that come up in such a connection. For instance, take Auckland : Auckland promises, so I am told, to become a very much larger town than Dunedin. Auckland has a very much closer relationship with the Islands and with island diseases. Therefore if things go as they are going I have no doubt that one of these days they will have a better Medical School in Auckland, because it will be a larger town and they will have a better chance of getting diseases of a sort that you would never expect and never will get in Dunedin; and, besides that, they are in close connection with the Islands, where a great part of New Zealand's original work should lie. 41. Let me put my question to you again regarding the condition that you disclose in connection with the training given at the Medical School in Dunedin : from what you have seen of the training given there is it desirable in the public interest that the granting of these diplomas should be continued at that University? —I would not answer that question. In a lot of these things that I have spoken about I am telling you what was the position of affairs in 1903 to 1905, when I was on the Hospital staff. There has been improvement in many respects since : for instance, there is a tendency to get assistants into the Hospital now. Before that assistants were very sternly pushed aside. When a man comes out to Dunedin and wishes to get on the Hospital staff there ought, first of all, to be some means by which the University Council may get in touch with him. A man ought not to be asked to go down on his hands and knees and grovel in the mud round about the town in order to get an appointment. All he ought to have to do is to lodge his testimonials, and to lodge them with a Council that understands what v good testimonial consists in. The only testimonial that is worth anything is the testimonial of a good man who says, " This young man has worked under me satisfactorily." 42. What lines should reform take in regard to the Council itself?— That is a tremendous question. I would never attempt to answer that. I could only make general statements. 43. How could you.bring about a better system of making appointments?— The best system of making appointments, where there is a good sense of honour with regard to these things, I think, is to let the staff make the appointments, as is done in the schools at Home. 44. Would you not have favouritism exercised then—would they not have their favourites and assist one another? Would the candidates get a "square deal"?— The position of hospital staffs in London is that a man may be on a staff as a visiting surgeon for twenty years, and may not know another man who has been there for twenty years also. 45. Of course, ours is on a smaller scale? —A very much smaller .cale, without a doubt. I am pointing out that passing from the present condition to a more satisfactory condition is so complex a question that you want a Commission, and on that Commission you want men who have first-class capacity. 46. It would be largely a question of money : to put that institution in the position you desire would require a large sum of money, would it not?—No doubt. There will always be a lot of money required for these things. In 1878 it would have been a far better thing for New Zealand if New Zealand had been content, by means of scholarships, to send promising students to England or Australia, and in the meantime have got ready for the founding of a school later on. But at the present time New Zealand has over a million of people, and I think New South Wales has something under a million and a half, yet New South Wales runs a very satisfactory school. 47. Have they got a school in Melbourne?—l do not know much about the Melbourne school