HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 70

HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID.

LOCAL BODIES RESTIVB.

At Saturday's meeting of the Waihemo County Council, Cr D. M. Philip presiding, the Hospital Board, Charitable Aid Board, and Consumptive Sanatorium accounts for the year ending March 31, 1909, were received, and tho Chairman stated that tho cum they bad now to pay was very nearly double that of the previous year. The Olerk read; a letter from the olerk to the Hawksbury Borough Council stating that at tho last meting of his council the matter of the largely increased levies made by Gharitia'bie Aid fand Hospital Boards was discussed, and the opinion expressed tihat the time was approaching when country local bodies should, where practicable, combine and attend to and provide for cases of sicknecs and poverty ia their districts, and suggesting that a con-ferencs of the Waihemo and Waikouaaiti County Councils and the Palmiers■ton and Hawkebury Borough Councils be held in order to discuss fche matter fully. The Chairman &aid he had noticed that tho local bodies were rightly objecting to the exhorbitant amounts claimed for hospital and charitable aid, and that they were suggc-sting a conference. Cr Stenhouse: What is the reason of ■the increase? The Chairman : From all accounts the boards have been going a-hfad too fatit. I have heard it stated on good authority that tho expenditure of the pa-st year alone waa sufficient to cover a number cf -yoa.re. The claims take up practically all our Government subsidy. Cr Maithcscn : It ia too heavy. Voices: "H?ar, hear." The Chairman, oewtinuing, said they cculd enter a protest and make it a reeouwnejidatiion to the incoming: council to h-oid the proposed conference.

The driving of the last spike of tlie North Island Main Trunk railway -will take place with some ceremony at tl>e Manganui Viaduct about tho end of the present month. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones, Minister of Railways and Public Works, will perform the ceremony, and will be presented with a souvenir of the occasion. It is proposed to run a special train from Wellington and another from Auckland to the spot selected for the finishing touch to an important national work.