A GOOD EXAMPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 142, 12 December 1935, Page 12

A GOOD EXAMPLE

BUT NOT FOLLOWED

WELLINGTON FREE AMBULANCE

At the conclusion of today's meeting of the Wellington- Free Ambulance Board Mr. Marcus Marks. expressed disappointment at the fact that the Free Ambulance .movement as inaugurated in Wellington had not spread to other centres in New Zealand and had not received Government recognition. It made them wonder, he said, how they got on elsewhere.

The chairman, Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, remarked that the title of the service —New Zealand Free Ambulance, Wellington branch—indicated the original policy of the first board. They had set a good example and had hoped that others would have followed it. For the Wellington Free Ambulance to have achieved its present success, cooperation, and harmony with many other organisations had been necessary, and they had had this to a marked degree. For the Government to take a, hand, as Mr. Marks had suggested, would indicate some form of compulsion, but he would rather see the movement extend without that. They had been fortunate in Wellington in the co-operation between all the bodies responsible for the welfare of the people, and until other hospital districts got the same harmony and cooperation they might spend the same amount on ambulance services without getting the value .that Wellington got. The time was not ripe for the board to interfere.

The service was now very flexible and ready to meet any emergency, said Mr. A. McCurdy. With Government red tape they might find themselves hampered.

Mr. G. Mitchell suggested that the lack of leaders in other centres was perhaps one reason why the movement had not extended, but the time would come when public opinion would bring about extension of the movement elsewhere.

"One help the Government might give," said Mr. Norwood, "is the remission of the petrol tax."

This tax, it was stated, cost the board some £600 a year, and it was decided to again approach the Government with a view to getting exemption from it. Mr\ Norwood pointed out that it was not a general tax: there were already exemptions from it, and the question was one of whether they might not be included amongst those exemptions.

Discussion on the matter was brought to a conclusion by complimentary references all round as to the work of the chairman of the board, the members, and the superintendent, Mr. F. Roffe.