HOSPITAL COMMISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19372, 6 July 1926, Page 10

HOSPITAL COMMISSION.

Welcome announcement is at length made of the arrangements for public inquiry into the allegations that there has been wasteful, improper and ill-administered expenditure by the Auckland Hospital" Board in respect particularly of buildings recently erected and modelled.' The appointment of Mr. Alexander Gray, K.C., of Wellington, as commissioner should ensure an inquiry conducted with thoroughness and impartiality • and with due regard to its legal implications. The parties concerned, including the public, may rest assured that the procedure to be adopted will sift the evidence and elicit the facts as effectively as a Supreme Court action, heard by a judge, could do. The order of reference has been drawn very fully' and. explicitly. It is sufficiently circumscribed as to period and scope to save the main issues froin being lost' in a maze of irrelevancies, and is still comprehensive enough to include investigation of everything directly related to those issues. It rightly excludes questions of general administrative policy and treatment of patients and recipients of charitable aid, and sets out in detail those that have occasioned widespread disquiet. These are concerned, with recent building operations. There has been large expenditure, perhaps not unnecessarily large in view of the growth of the city and its' environs, but certainly so large as to 'call for scrupulous care lest the bounds of economy .be overstepped. In connection with that expenditure there have been allegations of extravagance, negligence, and inefficiency. If there be any measure of truth in these allegations, then to that extent the public interest, has been sacrificed. If there be no truth in them, it is imperative that those against whom the imputations lie should be exonerated. A faithful following of the order of reference should leave no room for doubt as to the truth or falsity of the allegations, and fasten responsibility, if they be proved true in any measure, upon those who have been culpable. Nothing short of the most thorough inquiry can reach this desirable result, and it is well that the arrangements now announced promise so complete a search for all the facts.