Hospital Board Property

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 12

Hospital Board Property

Sir, —it is common knowledge that the North Canterbury Hospital Board has Health Department approval to sell to the Addington Trotting Club the raceway now leased to the club for £2OOO a year. The Government valuation of this land must be about £120,000; a lease at 5 per cent would be £6OOO per annum. That a public body accepts only £2OOO per annum from a racing club for nearly 100 acres is nothing short of scandalous—tantamount to a taxpayers’ subsidy of a private club. That the board should actually contemplate the sale of such a valuable asset is even more incredible. If the present lease has any bearing on the freehold price, no wonder the club is eager to conclude the bargain. By contrast, the Auckland Harbour Board has made it clear that it intends to retain the source of its future revenue. If anything, such public bodies, including councils, should be increasing their equity in the public domain, to the point where rents become a major source of revenue. One wonders why the board should even consider relinquishing such an endowment of increasing value.— Yours, etc., OBSERVER. April 10, 1967. [The secretary of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (Mr J. G. Laurenson) replies: “This property, which forms part of the Twigger bequest, is subject to a 100-year lease, entered into in 1947. The rental is assessed at 10-yearly periods, the next review being' due this year. When the rental was last determined in 1957 the figure then assessed was a fair and reasonable rental. The Department of Health has not given approval to sell this land. The approval at this stage relates only to power to negotiate. In all matters affecting this property, the board is in the position of a trustee. Whatever action it takes, the only consideration will be the interest of the trust, and the public can be

assured that these interests will be fully and completely protected.”]