DEPARTMENTAL AGGRESSION

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 27 March 1911, Page 4

DEPARTMENTAL AGGRESSION

We have drawn attention on many occasions to the tendency of the State to usurp the functions and thwart the policies of elective local authorities. We have on this ground condemned such measures as the Tramways Act and the Fire Brigades Act, and we have warned the public to be on their guard against any similar filching of their rights as citizens that may bo attempted in the prospective town-planning legislation. We have shown also that the aggressions of the State are directed, often under philanthropic pretexts, against the liberties of the individual as well as "against the selfgoverning rights of local communities. There are other means besides Acts of Parliament by which this politically evil work is being carried on. There is a tendency on the part of Government officials to take advantage of opportunities for increasing their own authority and prestige, sometimes at the expense of any person or corporate body that happens to stand in their way. This method of interference is, permore baneful, as it is more insidious and more continuous than thc_ method of direct and open legislation.

An example is even now presenting itself in South Canterbury, and thanks are due to tho Timaru Herald for its narrative of what has occurred—a narrative which, though obviously written from the local point of view, appears to be candid and fair. The South Canterbury Board purchased, in 1908, seventy-six acres of land at Fairlie as a site for a consumptive sanatorium, at £13 10s. per acre. They had previously sought the advice of Dr. Mason, then Chief Health Officer, and Du. Finch, the Health Officer for the district. Both these gentlemen assured the Board that the site was admirably suited for the purpose. Dr. Mason advised the Board to go ahead with the erection of buildings, and assured them that there would be no trouble about the Government subsidy on their expenditure. They fenced the land, and, still with the Chief Ileajth Officer's approval, planted shelter' trees. The Asnburton Hospital Board, at their invitation, joined in the undertaking and paid a share of the cost. Matters were at this stage when the Departmental reorganisation and socalled retrenchment of 1909 led to Dβ. Mason's retirement. His successor was a man of more autocratic mould—-Dr. Valintixe, the present Inspector-General of Hospitals. Departmental encroachments had been complained of even during the genial reign of Dr. Mason, but wo rather think that South Canterbury is not tho only district that has found (to use Eehoboam's metaphor) Dr. Valintine's little finger thicker than Dr. Mason's loins. Tho new Departmental head wanted tho South Canterbury Hospital Board to join with the Boards' south of Timaru in erecting a sanatorium that would serve the whole region from the Rakaia to the Bluff. The Christchurch Sanatorium would provide for the rest of the South Island. The reason of this policy, as stated by Dr. Valintine to a Timaru Herald reporter, was "that the erection of a sanatorium in each district would not be the most economical nor the most effective way of dealing with the disease. There must be concerted action, and I believe that one sanatorium to serve that part of the South Island from Ashburton to the Bluff would be sufficient."

In so far as this is a purely technical question, we shall offer no opinion on the Inspector-General's policy, although looking upon its administrative aspect, it may appear to bo another instance of the tendency of bureaucracies to bring about centralisation with an accompanying crushing of local spirit and local cmulatitm. _ The bureaucrat finds one big institution much more, convenient to control than a number, of smaller ones, and no doubt from his point of view he is correct, but as a matter.of public policy it may not be the best point of view. But we do not propose to discuss that aspect of the question just now. The succeeding phases of ihe struggle between the Hospital Board and tho Inspector-General are worth some attention as an illustration of the peculiar methods of' bureaucratic encroachment. At a conference held at Timaru' in August, 1909, Dr. Valintixe, replying to a question asked by the chairman, said that he <: was not prepared to recommend that the Fairlie site be abandoned altogether, but he would like them to wait a little und see what the southern Boards would be prepared to do. The Department would not exercise any compulsion as the Boards must find the money, but they were ready to advise, and that was his advice now." The tactics of "wait a little" scorn to have served the InspectorGeneral very well up to the present time. The arrangement .between the South Canterbury Hospital Board and tho Ashburton Hospital Board was made under powers conferred by the Public Health Act, 1908, and it's legality docs not seem to have been questioned. Before tho two Boards could take any further steps, it was necessary to have regulations gazetted. These wore accordingly drawn up by the solicitors to the South Canterbury Board and forwarded to the Inspector-General for his approval. Five months elapsed before any reply was received. During that period the Act of 1908 was repealed. When the Hospitals Act, 1909, was I passed, Dn. Vamstise told the Board that it would be necessary for them

to enter .into a new agreement in which the regulations would be embodied. The Board's legal advisers did not adopt this view, and further correspondence took place, the In-spector-General apparently making a practice of obliging the Board to "wait a little" for his replies. The Herald states that ho has "done all he could to block the regulations and absolutely refuses to gazette them— relying on advice which he states he has received from the Crown Law Department. The Board can get no satisfaction from him, and he takes a considerable time to reply to communications tent him on the subject." The Board's solicitors have pointed out to him in a letter that the Acts Interpretation Act, 1908, Section 20, contains special provision for the valid completion of arrangements initiated under the powers of a repealed enactment, and the latest development is that the South Canterbury Board has invited the Ashburton Board to arrange for a joint conference of the Sanatorium Committees of both bodies with a view to taking joint legal action and moving the Supreme Court to compel the Department to gazette the regulations. Should the matter come into Court, the proceedings will certainly be watched with great interest.