EDITORIALS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 889, 15 March 1889, Page 28

EDITORIALS.

Waste Somewhere.

The question raised by bi 3 Worship the Mayor at last week’s meeting of the City Council, is one which will probably exercise the wits of our Parliamentary representatives during a considerable portion of the approaching session, Mr Duthie undoubtedly made out a very strong case against the existing system of Hospital administration, and he put it with much force and clearness. We do not mean to say that he proved the present administration of the Hospital to be bad. That did not at all follow. But he showed very plainly *he weakness of the system as pro* vided by the Act now in force. Mr Duthie brought forward a formidable array of figures which, so far as they weut, distinctly proved that hospital administration costs considerably more in Wellington, proportionately alike to population and to the number of patients treated, than in other New Zealand towns, It must not necessarily be inferred from this. that the Wellington Hospital is in reality more extravagantly conducted than those of other places. The case as stated by his Wox-ship, however strong iu itself, may not be the whole case. There may be many qualifying circumstances which render hospital administration unavoidably more costly here than elsewhere. The central situation of Wellington, its growing prominence as a commercial and maritime entrepot, and its position ns the Seat of Government—the theoretical focus of all things—naturally tend to attract population hither, and not always population of the most desirable sort. We recognise the difficulties under which the hospital and charitable aid authorities have to work, and we are willing to believe that they do their best. But this does not prevent the burden upon the ratepayers being a very heavy and increasing one. And in these circumstances the auomaly on which the Mayor dwelt with just emphasis, that the funds are raised by one local body and expended by another, is a fatal weakness in the system. It may well be that the funds are expended to the utmost advantage practicable. Even so, it is riot easy to convince those who have to find the money that this is the ease, or that greater economy would not have been exercised bad the onus of raising the money rested with those who had the ) spending of if. In this way dissatisfaction and irritation are caused. People not unreasonably say that it is not in human nature to be so careful and economical if no responsibility exists as to providing the resources. A man often declares that he lives as economically as possible, but, when circumstances still compel him to retrench, he usually finds innumerable minute leaks which can be stopped by the exercise of resolute self-denial and vigilance. So with public bodies : when they have the disposal! of funds derived from outside sources they may easily fancy that they have carried economy to the extreme limits of parsimony, and yet if the same men holding elective seats had to raise by rates all the money they expended they would almost invariably discover, under the pressure of public opinion, means of further retrenchment. This dual authority is only one of many defects in the existing system, which, as a whole, needs drastic reform. The Wellington PoorRate has already crept up so 4d. Unless some better plan can be devised, we may rely on it we shall soon have a sixpenny Poor-Rate, nor can we be at all sure it will stop even there if the prescut Act bo allowed to remain unamended.