PRISONERS IN HOSPITAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 167, 14 July 1916, Page 7

PRISONERS IN HOSPITAL.

1 —■— VraO SHOULD PAY? (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. Two prisoners undergoing sentence at the Waikeria prison camp, near Te ! Awamutu, were recently taken ill and sent to the VVaikato Hospital for treatment. One of the prisoners was a female, and her fees /or treatment at the hospital amounted to £35 2/, while the male prisoner's medical bill amounted to £fi 10/. The Hospital Board claimed the fees from the Minister of Justice, hut in a reply to the Board yesterday, the Under .Secretary of the Department of Justice said that it waa not the practice of the Department to pay for the maintenance of prisoners in public hospitals. The Government contributed very largely to hospital funds, and therefore I considered that it should not be asked ito make any payments on account of prisoners sent to hospitals for medical treatment. The secretary said Waikato was in a singular position. Within the liosj pital district there was the Wakato I Hospital, the Rot,orua Sanatorium, Cambridge Sanatorium, Tokanui Mental Hospital, and the Waikeria Prison Camp. The prison wae one of the largest in New Zealand, and prisoners were drafted there from all parts of New Zealand. Mr. James Anderson said the charge was an iniquitous one, and he moved that a strong protest be made to the Justice Department against trying to saddle the Board -with such expenses. Everybody paid a hospital rate, and if prisoners were to receive free treatment, why should not the ratepayers. The chairman (Mr. Campbell Johnstone) said he -would support a motion to the effect of Mr. Anderson's remarks. The other State Departments did not claim on the Board, and why should the Justice Department do so? Mr. T. Paterson emphasised the fact that the prisoners came from all parts of New Zealand, and why should the Waikato Hospital Board, he asked, be saddled with the maintenance of the scum of the Dominion? Mr. James Boddie considered there was a distinction in the cases. Prisoners had, in any event, to be kept by the State. If it -was a recognised principle that prisoners were treated, free at public hospitals, he thought the Waikato Board had no right to claim any exception. The Board decided to make .an emphatic protest against being compelled to treat such cases free.