OFFER REJECTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 190, 25 May 1934, Page 6

OFFER REJECTED

THE OBSTETRICAL HOSPITAL.

GRANT OF £20,000 DEMANDED

OTAGO BOARD'S ATTITUDE.

(Per Press Association). DUNEDIN, This Day

Rejecting, the Government's offer of £17,750 for the erection of the new obstetrical hospital, the Otago Hospital Board last evening decided to ask the Government to make a grant of £20,000. Under its new demand the Board would find £IOOO, probably from the sale of the Batchelor Hospital. The chairman said it was not- the duty of the Dunedin ratepayers to provide the capital cost of a national institution. DEPUTATION TO MR COATES. MINISTERS TO CONFER, DUNEDIN, This Day. "There is no need for airyone to become agitated about the matter, hecause the Government, too, is anxious to have it cleared up," -said the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates this morning, to a representative deputation, which urged that finality should be reached on the question of the financing and erection of the hew obstetrical hospital. Mr Coates conceded that the hospital was a national institution, and promised to confer with the Minister of Health in the kope of reaching a settlement. After attending luncheon by the Manufacturers' Association, Mr Coates left in the afternoon for the north.