FURTHER AID.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 214, 10 September 1931, Page 3

FURTHER AID.

HOSPITAL BOARDS' APPEAU

BEQUEST FOR £100,000.

OUTDOOR RELIEF PROBLEM.

(By Telegraph. —- Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A request for a grant of £100,000 in order mat the hospital hoards of the Dominion might cope with the increased demand for outdoor relief was made to the Prime Minister by a deputation from the New Zealand Hospital Boards' Association. It was stated that unless the grant were made the boards, would be unable to meet a situation which was daily increasing in intensity, and they would have to face enormous deficits. Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board and of the association, supplied figures showing the estimated shortage in the finances of the various boards at the end of the current financial year. He said that although it was very difficult to ascertain from returns for the first quarter what was the correct position, it appeared that in the aggregate an additional £100,000 would be required to finance the boards to the end of the year. He also produced figures in connection with outdoor relief provided by the Auckland Hospital Board, showing that in the last five months the board had overspent its estimate by £12,550. It was estimated that by the end of the present month expenditure on outdoor relief would be exceeded by £14,700, and that by the end of the year- it would amount to £32,000 on outdoor relief alone, making a total deficit of £50,000. Mr. P. Castle, chairman of the Wellington Board, said by the end of the year his board would exceed its " estimated expenditure for outdoor relief by from £25,000 to £30,000. Mr. H. J. Otley, chairman of the North Canterbury Board, estimated that his board would have to face a deficiency of £22,000. The Rev. W. C. Wood, of Auckland, said a great deal of excellent work was being done by the City Mission in Auckland, which was providing beds and two meals for 400 men a day at a cost of •7|d per man. In reply, Mr..Forbes said he recognised the valuable work being done by hospital boards, and realised the difficulties they were up against because of abnromal demands for outdoor relief. However, the problem was a difficult one because every increased grant made was immediately swallowed up, and that process could not go on indefinitely. The Government had to take a stand in order to keep finances within reasonable bounds, and endeavour to prevent the problem becoming a permanent one. He recognised that something would have to be done to provide further assistance for boards, and promised to go carefully into the matter with a view to giving them further, aid.