VAST SUM SPENT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4144, 8 June 1949, Page 5

VAST SUM SPENT

STRONG CRITICISM VETERINARY CLUBS SERVICE NATIONALISED “ Thi- va't sum appears io have been spent to little effect," stated Mr J. H. Robins, veterinary surgeon to the Farmers' Veterinary Club, Ngatea, when making his report to the club at its annual meeiing held recently in Ngatea.

*' As you are no doubt aware, we have formed a Veterinary Services Council to foster the veterinary club movement. The income of this organisation consists of £(50.000, half a compulsory levy on farm produce, half from public funds.

“ During the year the number of

veterinary surgeons in club practice has been inc?eased by four, from 54 to 58. Eleven of this 58 consist of this year’s gradmites, whom the Veterinary Services Council has thought fit to idl’d to tin ir chosen profession for five year., ta the tune of £looo.’’

Mr Robin < explained that the previoim salary was £G>(). The speaker criticised the council’s policy of paying a fixed srlaiy irrespective of professional skill or the quantity of work undertaken.

“ This is the creed of nationalisation only too familiar in this country and in Great Britain today. The coy in the wheel, forced into step with the newest, the spendthrift bureaucim ■ at the top, with a bottomless ; ualic purse in which to dip. Surely it is possible to devise a simpler and more satisfactory scheme whereby a man may, if he wishes, procure the services <f a veterinary surgeon for an honest fee and a system that will prevent the continual loss of all but the most junior graduates from the country,’’ concluded Mr Robins.