The Evening Echo. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1879.

Ashburton Herald, Volume I, Issue 241, 8 January 1879, Page 2

The Evening Echo. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1879.

The scheme suggested by Government for the maintenance of hospitals and the dispensation of charitable aid in the Canterbury district seems to be a muddle. It is evident that complete unanimity cannot be secured amongst the local bodies interested, and another session of Parliament will have to pass over before some definite and satisfactory arrangement is come to. The slipshod legislation of last session left the question of charitable aid unsolved, and the counties and boroughs from the Rangitata to the Hurunui have nuder consideration the suggestion of the Government to send representatives to a Board sitting in Christchurch, and to contribute funds for that Board to dispense. The amount of money to be contributed by each body sending representatives to the Board is not fixed, but will be determined by the Board itself when it has come into existence. Should the local bodies of Canterbury not see their way to accept the proposed temporary solution of the difficulty which the Board is intended to provide, the Government will take the matter into its own high and mighty hand, bear the whole cost themselves, and when these bodies come to reckon up with the great powers that be on the matter of subsidies, they will find the amount paid to them less by the cost above mentioned borne by Government. Should the plan proposed be adopted, Government will pay one-half of the necessary expenditure. The situation leaves little choice indeed to those interested in the matter, and the dictatorial fiat from Wellington says : Half contribution if you join with our Board ; not a rap if you don’t, and we’ll take the whole amount out of your income from the subsidies we have to give you. So that whether, say the Ashburton County Council, sends a representative to the proposed Board or not, it will have to pay. If it sends a representative, it will be relieved of half contribution ; if it does not, Government will find ways and means to make it pay the full pound of flesh, while at the same time it is left with no voice in the hospital and charitable aid affairs of the provincial district. Under these circumstances, perhaps it is better to acquiesce in the Government proposal; but the state of affairs is certainly nnsatisfaetory, yVe had hoped

thaii. fjCQrt some permasjenis {inti efficient hospital would have been plantod in Ashburton, the centre as it is, of a large district, rapidly increasing in population ; but it seems to us that this prospect is as far off realisation as ever, and we are not hopeful that out of the-tangle surrounding the establishment, constitution, and working of the proposed Board such an institution will be evolved. An hospital is wanted now, and every day adds to the necessity for it; but the chances appear to us to be that, until the matter of charitrble aid is dealt with in a fair and liberal spirit by a Government not so palpably anxious as the present one is to shake off the cost of charitable and benevolent institutions as an unclean thing, we must continue to jolt dangerous and difficult cases over 50 or 60 miles of road to Christchurch; It is to be hoped, if our County and Borough Councils send representatives and funds to the Board, that they will not fail to agitate for an efficient hospital at least nearer to the boundaries of the county than Christchurch. [Since the above was in type, the County Council, we are glad to observe have to-day voted £SOOO to the erection of an hospital in Ashburton. The motion was made by Mr. Wason and he deserves the county’s thanks for moving in the matter. Beyond the question of amount the- Council was unanimous as to the advisability of an hospital. The Council, however, has declined for the present to send a representative to the proposed Board of management, but have decided to send a delegate to the conference to take place in Christchurch in a few days.]