BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION TRUSTEES VERSUS RATEPAYERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9331, 23 January 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION TRUSTEES VERSUS RATEPAYERS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sit),—The few remarks I made at the recent meeting of the Hospitals and Charitable Aid^Board were so frequently interrupted by memhers to whom they were evidently most unpalatable (certain of the Benevolent Institution Trustees to wit one of whom objected to my quoting the statutes;, that it is not surprising the <*entleman who reported for your paper did not quite catch their lull drift. I said " I did not know of any authority for the payment of the money demanded, or for the requisition of a special contribution from contributing local bodies to make up the required amount, and, if any one could point out such authority in the statute or its amendments, I should feel obliged " The chairman indicated the 11th section of "The Hospitals and' Charitable Aid Acts 1885 Amendment Act 1886," and I then stated that in my opinion that only authorised the requisition of a special contribution in such a case up to the Ist day of April 1887, and not thereafter And I further stated I hoped that the local bodies would appeal as provided m section 25 of "The Hospitals and Charitable Aid Act 1885,"- if the board unjustly demanded from them the money asked for. The paragraph of section 11 'Hospitals and Charitable Act 1885 Amendment 1886," upon which the chairman relied, is as follows:-"Every board which shall not have made provision for the cost of maintenance of institutions within the districts under the jurisdiction of such board respectively, or the distribution of charitable aid therein, or for both of such objects, (luring the now current year and until the lsb day of April in the now next ensuinr/year, may require a special contribution from the local authorities in each district for ths purpose or providing so much of "the aforesaid cost at lias not been already provided." I think that any unprejudiced person who will note the words I have italicised in the above paragraph of the sta u iite must admit that my contention is fully warranted; but such an admission appears to have been too much for the purblind views of those members of the board who are also Benevolent Institution trustees.—l am &c • Pomahaka, January 15. P. W. Mackenzie.