HOSPITAL SITE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23482, 20 October 1939, Page 10

HOSPITAL SITE

KOTOKUA CONTROVERSY PUKEROA HILL RESERVE MAORIS, COUNCIL AND BOARD" [by TELEGRAPH —OWN correspondent] ROTORUA, Thursday' Differences of opinion between tho Maori people who originally gifted the area to the Crown and'the Ho torn a Borough Council concerning the future control ~of the Pukeroa Reserve, upon which stands the Rotorua' Public Hospital controlled by the Waikato Hospital board, were revealed when this controversial subject came before the council last evening for consideration. The controversy is one which has been going on for some years, since the time when the hospital was transferred from the control of the Health Department to the Waikato board. Before considering the erection of a new hospital tho board has been endeavouring to secure a suitable tenuio for the area, but so far negotiations between the Maoris, the council and the board have failed., Council's Attitude The view taken up by the council has been that the reserve should be vested in the council, which could then give a lease of 21 years to the board for tho area necessary for a hospital, subject to an undertaking that if no longer' required for hospital purposes the hill should revert to the peoplo ol Rotorua as a recreation reserve. To this proposal the board has not been able to agree and for some years it has been pressing the Government for a iease. A conference was held in Rotorua on February 23, at which the Minister of Health, the Hon. P. Fraser, attended. It was then arranged that departmental officers should investigate the adequacy of the site for future hospital purposes, and it was as a result of these investigations that the discussion arose last evening. The Director-Gen-eral of Health, Dr. M. H. Watt, intimated that the Department was of the opinion that accommodation for 200 beds, with a possible future extension to 300 beds, was necessary for Rotorua, but that the area on which the present hospital now stands would be inadequate. The whole of the reserve would now be needed, and the board was agreeable to taking it over. Further Conference The Finance Committee of the council recommended that the council advise . the Department that in its opinion neither the Government nor the people of Rotorua had a right to alienate the area from the purpose for which it was originally given by the Maori owners, and that the council again protest against tho proposal to vast the area in the hospital board. The Mayor, Mr. T. Jackson, traced at length the history of the reserve. If the board should take over the whole area it would be the beginning of the end of Pukeroa Hill as a recreation reserve, he said, and a definite breach of trust. Mr. H. Tai Mitchell intimated that the Ng fl tiwbakaue definitely objected to the hill being vested in" the' council. It was felt that tho people could rather risk broken promise.* from a Government than from a local authority of 21 years hence. The area had originally been given to the Gov eminent of the day and the people desired that that policy be retained. It was decided that a conference be called between the council and the Ngatiwhakaue in order to settle the points of difference before a reply was sent to the Department.