"LAST OPPORTUNITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 215, 11 September 1928, Page 10

"LAST OPPORTUNITY.

THAMES HOSPITAL BOARD. dispute with num LETTER TO "LIE ON THE TABLE." (By Telegraph.—Own CorrespoMteaU THAMES, Monday. Having persistently refused to bnfli a maternity home at Paeroa, the 1 Thames Hospital Board now will not assist the Health Department to buOl it. The latest development in the bog controversy came to-day when the board received a letter from the Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, who said: "I am desirous of giving your board the opportunity of proceeding with this work (the Paeroa Hospital) on the lines of the actual plan and specifications ' which have been forwarded to yon. Pleasfe, therefore, submit this again to your board and let me know immediately after the board meeting whether the board declines to proceed forthwith with the erection of the hospital. Should the board decline to do so, I should bt glad to know whether it is prepared to honour claims for progress payments when they are made in due course by the Public Works Department. I wish to make it plain that this is the final opportunity which will be afforded your board to determine whether it will proceed with the work, and if it declines to do so the issue of the requisite Order-in-Council, which has now been prepared by the legal authorities, will go forward forthwith, and immediately after the Public Works Department will be asked to advertise tenders. I may say in this connection that failure to communicate the board's derision within a week of its next meeting mnst be taken as a refusal to proceed with the work." After a long discussion a motion by Mr. Walton, that the board honour claims for progress parment*. was defeated in favour of a* motion bv Mr. Parfitt, that the letter be allowed to lie on the table. The votin? was:— For Mr. Parfitt's amendment.—Messrs. Hale, Danbv, Fleet. Lange and Parfitt. Against.—Messrs. Brenan, Robinson and Walton. Mr. Kennedy, another member, wm absent.