WAIHI HOSPITAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21471, 20 April 1933, Page 10

WAIHI HOSPITAL

DEADLOCK CONTINUES PAYING WAGES AND BILLS SPECIAL AUTHORITY SOUGHT [bit telegraph—OWN correspondent] WAIHI, Wednesday The deadlock in connection with the affairs of the Waihi Hospital continues. The three absent members of the board, Mrs. E. Hughes and Messrs. C. Copestake and J. Cooper, who left the board without a quorum when tho iinal meeting of the year was to have been held on April 11, again failed to put in an appearance at a special meeting convened for last evening. Tho absent members, however, made it clear, in a joint letter, that their reason for not attending was because they were opposed to a decision of the majority of tho board to appoint a new matron in the absence of a report of tho Health Department's inquiry into tho trouble at tho hospital, which culminated in notice of dismissal being served on the present matron, Miss M. K. Stevenson. It was added that they would be prepared to call a special meeting in tho event of the board undertaking to confine business to the passing of tho estimates for the coming year and tho payment of salaries and accounts. After remarking that tho board could not allow itself to bo dictated to by a minority of tho members as to tho nature and order of business to bo dealt with, tho chairman, Mr. T. Jowsey, drew attention to the regulations of tho Health Department bearing on a quorum. They definitely provided that no business should bo transacted at any meeting in tho absence of tho necessary number of members. The regulations also stipulated that a special meeting could bo convened only by order of the ■chairman or by a requisition from not fewer than five members of a board, which meant that tho three members in question could not call a meeting. After some discussion, in which the members present took strong exception to tho attitude adopted by tho absent members, the secretary was instructed to communicate by telegram with tho Health Department asking for authority to proceed with the appointment of a new matron, the passing of estimates for the coming year, and the payment of salaries and accounts.