Farmers and Hospital Rates

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1939, Page 6

Farmers and Hospital Rates

THE rating of farm lands for the financing of public hospitals lias always been a grievance with rural communities, and j consequently it is not surprising to find, with the impending introduction of the social security scheme, with its inevitable increased burden in the form of hospital costs, that farmers are now talking of something more than verbal protests, against what they have long considered to be a serious injustice. The nature of the feeling among farmers on this subject may be gauged from the tenor of the remit sent by the Upper Wairoa branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union to the .recent Northern Wairoa Sub-Provincial Conference at Ruawai. The suggestion of the Upper Wairoa branch was that, if no relief is given to farmers under the heading of hospital rating they flatly refuse to pay any rates at all unless this burning grievance is rectified. The Sub-Provincial Conference unanimously endorsed the remit, but it is doubtful, nevertheless, if it can be put into effect. It Avould be difficult, and perhaps hardly desirable, however just the grievance, to induce a majority of farmers to refuse to meet their legal obligations to local bodies. If, however, the drastic nature of the measures proposed by the Upper Wairoa branch has the effect of calling the (Government’s attention to farmers’ feelings on the subject, giving some hope that some effective steps may be taken to remove the grievance, then the move will not have been in vain. Hospital maintenance in New Zealand was originally a responsibility of the old Provincial Councils, and each province had a system of its own. With the abolition of the Provincial Governments in 1876, the Central Government had to assume responsibility, and it at once found that it had inherited a thorny problem. According to the brief survey in the Year Book, many “difficulties and incongruities occurred, and as a result of excessive demands on the Government the Hospitals Act was passed in 1885, and under its terms special hospital districts were created, and the foundation of the present system of finance was laid. Broadly speaking, hospital boards today draw their revenues from three main sources in approximately equal proportions—-a third from rates levied through contributory local authorities in the board’s district; a third from patients’ fees; and a third from Government grants. Hospital boards do not have power to levy a direct rate, but the effect is virtually the same as if they had, for the amount levied'by the boards on their contributory local bodies is passed on to ratepayers. For years now there has been a tendency for the amounts of these levies to rise, and this is largely the reason for the grievances of farmers. But what has brought matters to a head is the fear that under the social security scheme the running costs of hospitals will rise so tremendously that there will be a further alarming rise in the hospital levies. The Government is merely taking over the liability for patients’ fees; it has not committed itself to any other assistance to hospital boards, even though it is generally agreed that an effect of the free medical system may be to place a heavier burden on hospitals and necessitate increased accommodation. It seems likely, therefore, that in addition to paying the social security levy, ratepayers will have to pay a higher contribution towards costs of hospital maintenance. That is why the farmers are worried. And with good reason.