"CAMOUFLAGE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 21, 26 January 1939, Page 15

"CAMOUFLAGE."

MINISTER'S LETTER. AUCKLAND HOSPITAL PLAN. MR. G. T. PARVIN CRITICAL. "Mere camouflage" was how Mr. G. T. Parvin, Franklin's representative on the Auckland Hospital Board, described a communication from the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, concerning the Auckland Hospital Board's loan proposal, read at last night's meeting of the Pukekohe Borough Council. The letter was in reply to one the council had written the Minister, supporting the Takapuna Borough Council, and urging him to call a conference of local bodies in the Auckland Hospital district when full details of the £1,500,000 building improvement scheme could be given.

The Minister assured the council that his decision on the board's proposals would not be made until they had been thoroughly investigated and full information placed before the contributing authorities. When the project was first mooted, the Minister said that, in view of the magnitude of the work contemplated, he decided it was necessary to obtain a comprehensive report, and Departmental officers liad been instructed to visit Auckland to investigate the position and to review the existing accommodation and facilities for treatment and general working. "On receipt of the recpiired information," continued the letter, "it is intended to give further consideration to your request for a conference of contributing local authorities to discuss details of the board's building proposals." * Mr. Parvin alleged that the board's architects were visiting Wellington frequently and every proposal and plan had been placed before the Minister who had approved of everything so far. The Departmental officers were fully acquainted with the position, "yet the Minister writes a letter like this," he added. The Mayor, Mr. J. Routly, asked Mr. Parvin -if he thought that what the Minister had stated would not be done. Mr. Parvin: Oh, no, but it appears they will go through the whole business again. As far as the site and plans are concerned they have been approved, step by step, by the Department. When completed they will be gone right on with. The Mayor said it appeared to him that the Minister intended getting the local bodies together "after the potato had been cooked," in which case a conference would not be of much value. Mr. Parvin reiterated that the Department knew exactly what had been, and what was being done. The letter was received.