HOSPITAL BOARDS

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 137, 10 June 1909, Page 6

HOSPITAL BOARDS

LOCAL BODIES'; REPRESENTATION.

A little diseiisspn ttiok place over the Hospital aiid Chuiitable Aid Bill at the Local Bodies' Conference last night. Mr Bajgley operied majters by expressing the opinion that there was something wrong in the managemei)t of affairs in respect to the hospital, Copley Home and charitable relief. He cjmplained that the expenditure, while laving increased from £23,000" odd in 19(31 to £38,000 last year, did not show warrintf for what wW now being ddne. The ujkeep of the hospital in that period had risen from £10,903 to £22,109, and of tie Costley Home from £3066 to £6302, tvithout commensurate benefit. From C/i per head in 1601, the cost of the inmates of the Costley Home had risen to 13/1 jer capita weekly. Why w"as this? And tte speaker went on to refer to the prestat system of electing members to the loafd ag one of indiscriihiiiate pitchfotting. He considered tnat the people who found the money— the ratepayers—sfould have the voice in electing representltives, and he moved that a committee be set up to inquire into the bill, and aIEO into the administration of hospital and charitable aid affairs in Auckland generally.

Mr E. Davis, while agreeing that proper representation should be arrived at, took exception to such a term as "indiscriminate pitchforking" being applied to the present system. And several other speakers, while deprecating such a sweeping assertion as had been made by Mr Bagley, coincided in the opinion that the present system was not altogether satisfactory. What was TCinted was a more direct and equitable vo ; "e in election of members by the ones who had to pay, the various local bodies, was the general tone.

The chairman uttered a note of warning that with the decreasing tendency of Government subsidies and upward tendency of charitable and hospital rates, the local bodies w>uld, if they did not take care, find themselves sooner or later with the whole burden.

Why not introduce a system of rotary retirement, one-thiid of the members of the Board each year? suggested Mr Johns. Such a system was equally necessary on a hospital as on an education or harbour board, and would tend to a greater expertness in dealing with business, he said.

Finally a committee was appointed to go into the whole matter of the Hospital Bill.