STILL HOLDING OUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 161, 10 July 1928, Page 8

STILL HOLDING OUT.

THAMES HOSPITAL BOARD.

DISPUTE WITH DEPARTMENT. REFUSAL TO BUILD AT PAEROA. (By Telfgrnph.—Own Correspondent.) THAMES, Monday. The Thames Hospital Board resolved again to-day not to call for tendera for the erection of a maternity hospital in Paeroa. The decision was made by five votes to two, when the board approved an amendment moved by Mr. Danby (Thames), that the Director-General of Health, Dr. Valentine, be informed that the board considered the time inopportune for the projcct, and that it could not see its way to call tenders for the building. Tn a letter to the board, Dr. Valintine «aid he did not consider that the main* tenanco of the hospital would entail the striking of a heavy additional rate by the board. He doubted if the cost of maintenance, exclusive of the Government subsidy, would much exceed £300 per annum. Mr. Brcnnan (Paeroa) and Mr. Walton (Hauraki Plains) advisd the board to give way, but Mr. Hale (Hauraki Plains) said the Department itself should build the hospital and take full responsibility. In a letter to the board the Thames County Council expressed alarm at "the ever increasing amount of the levy made by the board on the ratepayers of the county," and also supported the attitude of the board in resisting "the order by the Health Department to erect a hospital at Paeroa." The chairman explained that the increased levy was due to figures provided by a revaluation of the county.