Hospital Is County Councils' Problem

Northern Advocate, 27 July 1939, Page 4

Hospital Is County Councils' Problem

[Per Press Association. Copyright .] WELLINGTON, This Day.

Hospital rating was a burning question among all county councils, stated Mr C. J. Talbot, of Fairlie, in his presidential address at the biennial conference of the New Zealand Counties’ Association.

This, he said, was due to the steep ascent of the financial requirements of hospital boards. The main causes of the increase in hospital expenditure wore that people were becoming more hospital-minded, the increase in staff, the increase in the cost of provisions and drugs, the demand for better surgical and medical equipment, and renovation of some hospitals. County councils were unanimous that too much money was being spent on hospitals and not enough on roads. They also felt that there was little justification today for any increase in taxation on the land to meet the cost of rapidly-increasing sacial services, especially since prices paid for primary products were unstable and compara-. lively low.

The French mothers’ gold medal will be conferred on Madame Dufresnil,, of Cevran, aged 29. who is the mother of 11 children, the eldest of whom is 11 ,and the youngest a one-year-old boy.