HOSPITAL RATE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 267, 23 August 1946, Page 2

HOSPITAL RATE

MR FRASER’S REPLIES TO COUNTIES

•‘BUDGET POLICY WILL STAND”

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 22,

Concerned at the Government’s

hospital rating policy, 200 county councillors from all parts of New Zealand assembled in Wellington to-day for an emergency conference of the New Zealand Counties’ Association. In response to a request that he should meet their representatives to hear ur-

gent submissions on rating, the Prime Minister (the lit. Hon. P. Fraser) attended that conference late in the day, accompanied by the Minister of Health (the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer).

Mr Fraser was asked that the Government put into early operation the recommendations on hospital rating made by the Parliamentary Committee on Local Bodies, and that in the meantime the Budget' proposal to limit the hospital levy on local bodies to id in the £ should take effect this year, and not, as announced, from April 1, 1947. Mr Fraser promised he would ask the Cabinet to consider the request that id in the £ limit should be introduced this year. He could not, however, agree to alter at this stage the method of relieving local bodies of hospital taxation. The Government’s policy had been set out in the Budget, and this policy would stand. Mr G. W. Belton, of Ngutuwera, said the statement concerning hospital rating issued by the Government along with the Budget was so meagre that intelligent understanding of its implications was impossible, but it was plain that taxation of land for hospital purposes was retained. The Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. G. Parry), opening the conference, said delegates would be aware oi the proposal in the Budget that the hospital rate should be stabilised for the whole Dominion at Id in the £. The Minister compared the Government’s decision with the parliamentary committee’s proposal. Apart from its recommendation to stabilise the rate at the average ruling from 1935-36 to 1938-39, the committee recommended that the maximum rate should be .7d in the £. The Government proposeu to reduce this to id. For many highlyrated rural areas this represented a major saving. Local bodies as a whole would be saved £BOO,OOO to £900,000 annually.

“A Bombshell'’

The Minister expressed regret that a non-party attitude was not followed in parliamentary discussion of the committee’s report. He was working in the hope of offering a practical and acceptable solution of many outstandingissues affecting local body government. Mr Belton said that the committee had presented a unanimous report. It must have sounded strange to those who heard the Prime Minister say he would not have signed that poi'tion of the report dealing with hospital rating Mr G. A. Monk, of Reikorangi, said counties had come to the parting of the ways. They had to bow down to the burden or break the law. Mr W. A, Bishop, of Waitemata, said the Budget proposal regarding the levy was a bombshell to most local bodies. 1-Ie felt that local authorities had been let down, because there had been no parliamentary discussions of the proposition as Ministers had promised. The Minister of Finance had taken the bull by the horns. Mr J. L. Burnett, of Waimana, said the conference should be satisfied with nothing less than the committee’s recommendation, and then only as an instalment before the abolition of the hospital rate. The conference unanimously adopted a motion that the Government be urged to proceed with the early im plementation of the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government in general, and with hospital rating in particular. Case Outlined An immediate request was made to Mr Fraser and Mr Nordmeyer to hear this request, and when they arrived in the late afternoon the case for the counties was outlined by Mr Belton.

The Prime Minister said there were i two widely divergent points of view in Parliament on hospital rating, and it was for the country to decide which it would favour. There were only four hospital districts that would not receive benefit from the establishment of the maximum of ftd in the £. No i Government would agree that il should, of necessity, accept the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee. That would lead to« ridiculous and paradoxical situations.- It was Cor the Government itself to make decisions on policy. He would report to the Cabinet that the association thought the relief granted inadequate He could not, however, hold out any hope for the abolition of rating for hospitals. The expansion of the hospital system had been enormous. A case had been made out for a good deal of the burden being taken over nationally, but there was not a case, in his opinion, for local responsibility being swept away altogether. The Cabinet would examine the proposal that the maximum of Id in the £ should be introduced in the current year, instead of next year, but he would only be deceiving the conference if he said that there was any prospect of the Government changing its general policy on hospital rating. It would have to stand this year, and the position could be examined later. ; The conference then adjourned and | will resume to-morrow.