HOSPITAL FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17784, 18 May 1921, Page 6

HOSPITAL FINANCE.

Since hospital administrations have no escape from the universal increase in prices, it is not surprising that the Auckland Board has been compelled to frame its budget on a larger scale than last year's, and to make a higher levy on the contributing local authorities. There has been a remarkable growth in local taxation for hospital purposes, through a steady increase in the rating value of the hospital district and successive advances in the annual levy. In 1914, the board raised £24,282 on a valuation of £37,879,000, equivalent to .154 d on the pound. Now it proposes a levy of £61,667 on a valuation of £49,333,000, by a rat© of .30d. In seven years, the rating basis has increased by 30 per cent., the rate has been virtually doubled, and the yield is two and a-half times that obtamed in 1914. There is a suggestion in the official statement that the latest addition is partly attributable to financial embarrassment caused by the inability of the Public Trustee to provide anticipated advances for capital expenditure. That difficulty has led th e board to propose. the issue of a loan of £20,000 at 6j per cent, for public subscription. This novel experiment in hospital finance depends on the Government's sanction. Although this is more than a matter of mere formality, it appears that the Goveminent cannot object to the issue of the loan or to the proposed terms unless it is itself prepared to advance the money required by the board. This and similar financial problems of other public authorities are of pressing importance, and their consideration should impel the Government to announce a clear and practical policy. In its efforts to regulate the rate of interest, it has imposed restrictions on local authorities to which no other class of borrowers has been subject. The result has been that the latter have paid the market pric© for money, while the former have almost without exception been forced to resort to all sorts of expedients in their efforts to discharge their 'publicduties. It is time the Government abandoned its practice of nominally sanctioning all local body loans, and adopted an effective method of assisting the financing of urgent expenditure.