OAMARU HOSPITAL PROPOSED LOAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23704, 11 January 1939, Page 5

OAMARU HOSPITAL PROPOSED LOAN

- TO THE EDITOR

Sir,—ln your issue of January 4 there appeared a letter written by a correspondent signing himself ‘‘Not a Member,” and he freely criticised the meeting of ratepayers held in Hilderthofpe on December 29, and also the vigorous protest made by the assembled ratepayers at that meeting. He points out that the proposed loan is for £40,000 only, and the New Zealand Government is to find the other £40,000. and says that our protest is incorrect in objecting to the ratepayers being saddled with the great sum of £BO,OOO without a ballot. This angle on the matter was considered in the course of the general discussion which took place after my address, and the meeting was unanimously of the opinion that it was immaterial, as what we did not pay interest and other charges on as ratepayers we undoubtedly had to pay as taxpayers; it all had to be paid for by the taxpayer in any case. We also agreed that what is collected from merchants and business generally in the towns is passed on in increased prices to the primary producer, who is in the unfortunate position of being an ultimate consumer. He cannot, possibly, pass on his extra taxes and expenses, and. as the ever-swelling tide of taxation—both local’ body and general—rises higher- and ever higher, his equity in his home,- wherein he has sunk his all. grows less and less. " Not a Member” also said that the board is under the orders of the Health Department, and is now seeking authority from the Loans Board to borrow the £40,000. This point was touched on in my address and also ventilated in discussion, and the indignant ratepayers agreed that the Hospital Board owed a duty to the ratepayers who had elected them to conserve ratepayers' interests, and that the board had signally failed in their duty to the ratenayers when they did not refuse flatly to assist in any way to squander this great sum of money in wholly unnecessary buildings, etc.,: and should have requested the- support Of ratepayers in this. attitude'pending investigation. We were quite satisfied that our liabilities are not ended by any means when the £BO,OOO is all squandered; there is a permanent and very heavy expense in maintaining, staffing, etc,, these extra buildings, etc.; also that the proposed expenditure was a case of downright extravagance and waste To quote just one item —£3500 for a doctor’s residence or palace; not 1 per cent, of a hard-working farm community have a house worth £IOOO, and on the great majority of rural holdings the buildings are slowly crumbling with age, and the land occupier cannot afford the inflated costs of repair and maintenance ruling to-day under Labour administration.

The farmer’s viewpoint on all this wasteful' squandering of borrowed money is simple and straightforward. When you borrow you create debt, on which interest, etc,, must be paid by someone. The huge sums ,being borrowed are .tc a great .extent wasted in creating a royal good time, for tens of thousands on -■ “ relief ” schemes of Government employment in some form or other, r The whole of this huge and ever-growing debt has got to be liquidated, all principal, interest, etc., by 'posterity We are heavily mortgaging the future prosperity, of the children of to-day for our own selfish pleasures and benefits, , and posterity will inherit a land staggering under a crushing load of debt of"every description; a land, from which all capital has fled. Throughout all history extravagance, waste, and idleness have never yet failed to produce a frightful poverty ahd destitution, arid why. should ' these „ vices fail to produce their natural results here .in New Zealand?. When I first convened the meeting at Hilderthorpe there was no thought of political capital in mind Hospital boards in New Zealand have enjoyed certain very wide powers of privileges for a very long time now, long before any Labour Government existed in New Zealand, and the, at-, tempt to saddle the ratepayers, taxpayers, witf a huge debt .such as £BO,OOO without showing any necessity whatever for it, without any poll on the subject, is a gross abuse of a position of trust and confidence. a Member” will be interested to learn that when I called on the Waitaki branch committee of the New Zealand Labour Party every man ratepayer signed, including the chairman and the secretary—signed as readily as the farmers, one and all fully aware that if these ever-mounting local body debts are not stopped, and a halt called to sinful waste and needless extravagance, then ere long their interest in their homes which they have s’, uggled so long to clear to make their own. will'seriously diminish.—l am, etc., J. B. Chapman. Waitaki, January 6.