WARTIME HOSPITAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 58, 18 December 1945, Page 3

WARTIME HOSPITAL

OFFER OF £500,000 REJECTED (P.A.) AUCKLAND, December 17. Ail offer of £500,000 by the Auckland Hospital Board for the new Middlemore Hospital has been rejected by the War Assets Realisation Board, which has fixed £810,727 as the price it will accept. In a letter to the Hospital Board the Realisation Board stated that this price was the final estimated cost less £6OOO to cover estimated maintenance for a year from January 20, 1946. Negotiations for the purchase of the hospital, which was erected to meet the war emergency, have been proceeding since September, 1944. The chairman of the Hospital Board’s Finance Committee, Mr J. Grierson, stated to-night that the basis of these discussions had been that the cost of the hospital should be ignored and that only its value to the Hospital Board should be considered. Now a price representing the whole cost was being asked, and there was no question of negotiation.

The Hospital Board passed a resolution that it was not prepared to purchase at the price asked, but it empowered the sub-committee to continue negotiations with the Realisation Board. Failing a satisfactory agreement it would not proceed further.