HUTT HOSPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 12, 14 July 1939, Page 5

HUTT HOSPITAL

"WILL BE WANTED"

OBJECTION TO METHOD OF

TAXATION

No further protest is to be made by the Makara County Council against the proposal of the Wellington Hospital Board to borrow approximately £435,000 for the building of a hospital at Lower Hutt. A decision to this affect was made by today's meeting oi the council members, which made it clear that their quarrel was not with the need for a Hutt hospital, but with the method of hospital taxation.

In reply to an inquiry from the council, the Wellington Hospital Superintendent (Dr. A. R. Thome) wrote that the board had given considerable attention to the requirements of the Hutt Hospital and it was of the opinion that the sum to be borrowed would be absolutely necessary. Prom discussions which had appeared in the Press the board had gained the impression that critics of the proposal were of the opinion that the sum which the board proposed was for beds only, but that was not correct. When the hospital was finally completed, the ultimate size being 400 beds, the cost per head would not be so heavy as it appeared at present. The board hoped that the council would withdraw any opposition.

Councillor R. W. Bothamley said they knew perfectly well that opposition did not count. It made no difference.

The chairman (Mr. E. Windley) said that the council's only method of opposing the scheme would be to send a protest to the Local Government Loans Board, if councillors thotxght that dedrable.

Councillor R. G. Mexted: It certainly gets you nowhere.

Councillor Bothamley: We all agree that a hospital is necessary, and if it is necessary to spend £435,000 that is the end of it. We condemn the mode of taxation to get the money.

The chairman: I agr-;e. I think that what they are providing in Lower Hutt vtill certainly be wanted.

The chairman added that the Hospital Board was not concerned with the method of taxation for its funds. It had no control over that.