HOSPITALS AND SOCIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 8

HOSPITALS AND SOCIAL

SECURITY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have been waiting to see if any exception would be taken to the action of the chairman of the Hospital Board in deciding a major issue by his casting vote. I have always understood that the constitutional method for a chairman to adopt in the case of even voting is to give his casting vote in such a manner that the question will be left open for further consideration. That used to be Parliamentary practice, and I have heard, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, when a tie has been announced, say that he would ,;give his casting vote iri the constitutional way." Has • Parliamentary practice been subjected to modern innovation so that a chairman can now give a deliberative vote and a casting vote to decide an issue?

Perhaps now that this expenditure has been decided upon, the ratepayers can derive some relief from the thought that now the new Social Security tax is going to take care of all medical and hospital services. - there will not be any further rating for hospital and . har'table aid purposes, or are the ratepayers still to be levied with 'hese charges, as well ag the Social Se--■"rity. tex?-'-..Thereis suc>> a delightful obscurity surrounding all these new measures that one is not sure that a hospital and charitable aid board will be necessary, and if it should still be deemed necessary, where will its functions begin and end? —I am, etc.,'

W.A.T.