THE POOR PAROCHIALISTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 103, 28 October 1932, Page 6

THE POOR PAROCHIALISTS

It would be a blot on the fair name of the Dominion, said Mr. Richards in. the House of Representatives, if the hospital recommendations of the National Expenditure Commission were adopted. It was a tragedy, he said, that men should sit in judgment on the needs of people whose struggles had never been understood by the members of. the Commission. Such criticism would lead

one to conclude that the Commission had proposed drastic retrenchment at the expense of the sick poor. Nothing could he further from the fact as concerning the Commission's main hospital reorganisation recommendations. It is expressly stated in the report: When the foregoing figures are realised, the case for reform appears to be unanswerable, particularly when it can "Bo obtained without sacrificing any of the efficiency which must be aimed at in a hospital system. It is not. the sick poor, hut the parochially-minded politicians against whom the report is directed. An extravagant arid wasteful system of administration does not benefit the patients. Attempts to introduce the note of sympathy are quite out of place, unless it is thought that the numerous superfluous hospital boards should be allowed, for sentimental reasons, to continue-1 wasting public money.