The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-21 00:00:00

BOSPITAL

The pspenditure keeps pace close upon the in-
come, so tile the balance carried forward from last
year is £4,352 agaii:‘st, £3,167 brought forward from
the previous year, to swill the
present total of re-
oipts. The whole cost of provisiimis is £5,942 and;
the Items were as follow':—Flour, £935; tea,
sugar, rice, and oatmeal, £565 ; malt and hops,
£504 ; mutton and beef, £2,090; potatoes, £166;
milk, £839 ; fisb, eggs, &c., £362 ; butter, £457.
According to the adage, " that it is better to pay
for food than medicine"—which is a foolish adage,
seeing the best thing we can pay for is the thing
we most want—the cost for drugs and chemicals
was only £2,634; wine and spirits cost altogether
£931 ; porter, £353; surgical instruments, £168;
washing, £777; coals and firewood, £958. But in
this list is a specimen of the lumping system, against
which we are so frequently compelled to protest.
It is an entry written thus :—" Tradesmen's bills,
£1,692." So large a sum would surely adt....1;
di
con-
voy anidea`
ision into
nf
some
the
efewpregpeenerrtiaelas era 4 p
heads, so as taopcoxno;
priated for bedding, furniture; paint, plaster, and;
chloride of lime. It is a very large sum to set down
in a lump, under so vague a description ; and if
this were an institution " supported by voluntary
contributions," the contributors would certainly
desire a little information respecting it. Another
lump, almost as vague, is, " salaries to officers,
medical department, £2,800. In all such cases, if
particulars are given at all, the salaries of the
principal officers should be stated in detail. The
public never grudge good salaries to able men, but
they do like to know what their salaries are when
they are connected with the administration of great
public charities ; and it is most unwise to prepare
a balance-sheet in such a way as to invite the
smallest amount of adverse criticism. Salaries to
officers on the Board of House Surgeons amounted
to £356 ; to officers of the Civil Department, also
a vague entry, and an objectionable lump, £2,280;
salaries to servants, £1,836; wages to sisters and
nurses, £2,256, The whole total of salaries was
£lo,o34—that is, above a third of the income.
R
nl
Ted
ettmea axepth,
aes r cseoyseetsteeiampl,
eob4pyia
w,3
payment
ihee
nihct hrorates
ist
peasonoaren-nrdat r yt e
snao al-
etaxesa.
crrkae
like
el
i tets
hvab
eied, especially while a few close corporations
together. Hospital
grudgedinnersthe g
aotrnowinrse
whocost
know
£151,h none
what it is to labour gratuitously in the management
of such a vast undertaking. The costs of survey-
ing, viewing estates, law, and miscellaneous inci-
dents, are all so trifling as to be not worth citing,
unless it were to show how, in these matters, gover-
nors evidently study economy, and keep themselves
aloof from jobs. Law cost only £196, but it will
make a large figure in next year's account, in con-
nection with the negotiations as to the sale of the
site, wherein the governors literally bit the ends off
their own fingers, and made them a4resent to the
railway company. The sum of £1,028 was ex-
pended in repairs and improvements of the hospital,
and £2,084 on the improvement of estates. The
charity cannot have added much to its resources of
raw material, however it may have improved the
value of its attached properties ; for there was ex-
pended, for the purchase of land, the merely nominal
sum of £6O, and for the redemption of land-tax
£97. Altogether though many of the entries are
as foggy as the shores of Newfoundland—this is a
gratifying picture of the financial status of one of
the oldest and most fioulishing of the metropolitan
hospitals.—City Press.

- R.,11.17Vel Y 17V71C-.23.IGENCE.

NORTH-EASTERN.

The Rosedale branch of this railway, in the
Cleveland iron district, was inspected by the direc-
tors last week, and accepted by them from the
contractor, Mr. R. Cail. This branch opens out an
important mineral field. The Rosedale Alining
Company now send by it from 10,000 to 16,000
tons of iron ore per month, or what will produce
60,000 to 80,000 tons of pig iron per annum.