SUPPORT OF HOSPITALS

Evening Post, Volume 137, Issue CXI, 10 June 1926, Page 9

SUPPORT OF HOSPITALS

TAX IN NEW SOUTH WALES,

(From Owr Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, 3rd June.

That a tax will be levied in New South Wales for hospital purposes, in view of tho financial difficulties which face nearly every big hospital in the State, seems almost certain. To help the hospitals by means of a State lottery as has been suggested in many quarters, would be to embark upon a schemo which would offend a section of the community which is not negligible, and the Government, is apparently not unmindful of this, much as such a project would find favour among others. While a section of the Labour caucus has been pressing for a State lottery, the majority of the Cabinet, it is believed, are against the idea. A special tax of 6d a week, to be paid by employees, and to be subsidised by a similar sum from employers, has been foreshadowed. A hospital tax, while it may not take that precise form when the Cabinet finally determines the matter will it is felt, yield a handsome annual sum without imposing any very great strain on the individual.. It is now fairly clear that the system of voluntary contributions, much as it is to be commended, .has failed.