PUBLIC HEALTH BILL.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16932, 6 September 1920, Page 6

PUBLIC HEALTH BILL.

MINISTER ANSWEKS PBOTESTS.

(SPECIAL TO "Tin! rPESS.")

WELLINGTON, September 5

The answer made by the a.taki Hospital Board to the Ministerial defence of the new Public Health has drawn a further reply from the Ministor (the Hon.' C. J. Parr). In a letter addressed to the chairman, Mr Parr states that it appears that the Board has acted on a misunderstanding, wiiica should bo explained away by the lull text of the new Bill. _ That measure proposes to provide against the lack of definition as to the duties of the local authorities, the hospital boards, and tho Department, which, was the subject of comment in the report of the Royal Commission 011 tho influenza epidemic. Tho hospital board is to be eliminated, and the administration of health measures to bo a matter wholly between local body and Department. For this, tho Minister states", precedents may be found in the Health Acts of Britain, Canada, South Africa, and Australia. The Health Bill, therefore, following the accepted ideas, places "on local bodies tho duty of providing for sanitary inspection. Assistance by the Government, is provided for in the case of these large and undeveloped districts in which the provision of roads and bridges must form tlie main part of their functions, and absorb the bulk of tli'i funds. It is no new thing for the Government to aid the local authority. It has been done with success in Taranaki and Wanganui, and in the Waikato and Thames districts for a number of years tho system has worked well and resulted in marked improvements in the sanitary systems. Tho new Bill proposes to simplify and make available to any part of New Zealand the same system of assistance. This the Minister considers should meet tho wishes of the local f bodies endorsing the Board's circular, ex?ept in the matter of | cost, which he interprets thev contend should come out of the Consolidated Fund, fie cannot agree that tho costshould bo borne by the Department, because it is the accepted duty of tho local authority, and .because if it was paid from taxation, the country districts in which, the need for sanitary inspoc--1 tion is least, would bear an equal sharo of the burden with _thc_towns in which the need for inspection's greatest.