PUBLIC DUTY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 133, 1 March 1929, Page 15

PUBLIC DUTY

DETRIMENTAL TO SUCCESS IN BUSINESS ' MR. W. APPLETON’S VIEWS Highly appreciative reference to the valuable services which Mr. W. Appleton has rendered to the Wellington Hospital Board was made at the monthly meeting yesterday. The chairman (Mr. C. M. Luke) regretted that this was the last meeting which Mr. Appleton would attend, but sincerely hoped that at some future date he would find time to again give the board the benefit of his helpful counsel. The chairman went on to refer to the valuable service which Mr. Appleton had rendered as chairman of various committees, and moved that the board’s appreciation of such services should be placed on record. The Rev. H. Van Staveren and Mr. F. Castle also spoke highly of the services Mr. Appleton had given, and the motion was carried unanimously. •‘I would like to state,” said Mr. Appleton, “that my withdrawal from Hospital Board activities is tinged with a certain amount of regret. Regret in the first place that circumstances over which I have no control, have necessitated my not being able to devote as much time to the work as I would like to have done during the last twelve months. The pro- • per administration of the board’s affairs calls for unremitting labour on the part of those members who aye conscientious in the discharge of their duties, and in this connection I desire to place on record my high appreciation of the work that has been done for so many years by most of the older members of the board. One has only got to consider that the ordinary expenditure last year was in the vicinitv of £187,000 to realise the magnitude or the work. When it is known, too, that capital expenditure during the last two years has been no less than a quarter of a million, outsiders will appreciate to some extent that the conduct of the Wellington Hospital is no sinecure. “While it is desirable that there should be continuity of policy, and for this reason it is essential that a goodly number of the older members should be returned from term to term, it will be patent to everyone that an influx of new blood is in the best interests of the institution. There is ample room for good work to be done on the Wellington Hospital Board, and I hope that some other of our younger business men will come forward and offer their services. “While on this subject there is one point I would like to make, and that is that the work of business men on the Hospital Board is not fully appreciated by their associates in business in this city. This applies not only to Hospital Board work but to civic matters generally. I regret to have to state that it has been my experience. that association with civic work in Wellington—and I have no doubt that it also applies to other parts of the Dominion —acts detrimentally in regard to a man’s profession, and the very fact that a man is prepared to spend a certain amount of his time in the public interest reacts to his , disadvantage. Those who do business with him are too apt to think that he is neglecting his own concern for the sake of the limelight. Leading commercial men in this city are constantly grumbling at the increasing amount of rates, and at the 1 poor manner in which the business affairs of the city are conducted —they have themselves to blame. Little or no encouragement is offered to any young business man to come forward and offer his services. Judging by my own experience, if he does so he is going to suffer in his own calling. 1 “It is time that there was a better public appreciation of those citizens who come forward to do their duty, and this particularly applies to the commercial community. We have far too many ‘armchair critics’ in our midst. “As I have said, I am sorry that the exigencies of my own business compel me to give up public work for a time. I hope that on some future occasion, when the demands of my organisation are less exacting. L will again be able to offer my services in connection with the work of the Wellington Hospital.”