HOSPITALS, LARGE AND SMALL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 121, 23 May 1914, Page 4

HOSPITALS, LARGE AND SMALL

Though the local levies for hospital and charitable aid purposes show a slight reduction this year, the cost is still high enough to cause concern. "When old age pensions were established, the idea was abroad that they would lessen the contributions of the Government to charitable aid. Has the Old Age Pensions Act done so?" asked Mrs. Grace Neill in our issue of yesterday.; Tho statisticians point to the prosperity of New Zealand, and to the rise in the -amount of wealth per head of population, but the State's burden as a foster-father becomes more and more heavy. There is competition in "humanitarianism" between the party politicians, and it is a case of "money no object," because tho philanthropists do npj, foot the bills. Their function is to spend, and the people pay. This eagerness -of the politicians to figure as men of generous minds, large hearts, and an open public purse has inevitably tended to promote wastefulness. Thus the system of politics is one cause of extravagance, and there are other factors. One is the inordinate cost of maintaining certain minor hospitals, established more by the "pull" 6f certain "hustlers" in a district than by a public need. Otaki, within easy railway reach of good hospitals at Palmerston and Wellington, insisted on having an institution of itß own, and this building, described as "ft pretty little toy hospital" by the late Dr. MacGregor, is said to cost*' £l34o a year ; in addition Otald pays £125 to the Wellington Hospital. That expensivo superfluous hospital of tho little town should be a warning to the people of Hutt and Potonc to beware of tho proposal of enthusiasts to have a small hospital for the two boroughs. Dr. Valintine, Inspector-General of Hospitals, is strongly againit tho "planting" of petty

hospitals up and down the landscape, and he has the support of prudent public men. A month ago Mr. Bunny (then Mayor of Lower Hutt) said "he was of the opinion that most people felt it was better to have one central hospital than two or three small institutions," and this week Mr. M'Ewan (Mayor of Petone) remarked :— "The evidence of experts pointed in the direction that larger hospitals were more efficient to-day than ever before. ... He thought the proposed institution should only deal with accidents and minor cases, leaving the people free to go to the main hospital." The Weight of evidence is strongly against the establishment of a small general hospital in the Hutt Valley.