HOSPITAL RELIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22463, 6 July 1936, Page 12

HOSPITAL RELIEF

CHAIRMAN'S DEFENCE

BURDEN ON RATEPAYERS NATIONAL BASIS NEEDED While expressing sympathy with the aim of a correspondent Mho appealed to him through the Hkkai.u for an increase in tlio Auckland Hospital Board's scale of relief allowances, the chairman of the hoard, the Rev. W. C. Wood-, said on Saturday that it was very difficult to make any further improvement at present.

The hoard, said Mr. Wood, was now granting moro liberal relief than a few years ago. The grocery scale had been raised for families of four persons or less, as follows:—One person, !>s to (3s; two persons, 8s 9d to 10s lid; three persons, 12s to ].'!s; four persons, 14s (3d to 15s. The remainder of the scale, which had not been altered, was:—Five persons, 17s (3d; six jjersons, 20s; seven persons, 22s 6d; eight persons, 255. Moat and Milk

The board had also considerably increased its expenditure on coal, meat and milk. No per capita figures were available, but the increase was shown by the following total expenditures in 1930-31 and 1935-36:—Coal, £223 and £288; meat, £5-1 and £474; milk, £561 and £l7ll. Meat and milk were now being supplied to nearly all recipients of relief. In addition to groceries a family of eight people received a quart of milk a day and from 81b. to 101b. of meat each week. Five or six years ago these commodities were seldom given, except under a dispensary order. •'I should not like it to bo thought that the board regards its relief as an adequate living allowance," continued Mr. Wood. "Outdoor relief was designed originally as a means of helping people over a difficult time, and was intended to be fairly temporary. The trouble now is that the need for it has become chronic. Hospital boards aro supporting great numbers of elderly people who are ineligible for old-age pensions and others who, through ill-health, are unable to work. Limited by Revenue "The Auckland Hospital Board's ability to help is limited by its revenue. The board is already spending £50.000 a year on relief, and the cost, after deducting the Government subsidy, is being obtained from one section of the community—the ratepayers. Obviously it would be unfair to increase their burden, and wo are hoping that the problem will be solved on a national basis.

"The anomalies that now exist can easily lje seen when one considers the case' of the unfit man. A man who has been ill and cannot do ordinary work goes to the unemployment bureau. He is medically examined and classed 'C,' which means that he becomes a charge on the Hospital Board. The board allows him so much a week for groceries, together with a certain amount of milk and meat, and perhaps a few shillings toward his rent. The same man, if he were able-bodied, would bo paid 27s a week sustenance by the State for doing nothing/'