DUNEDIN HOSPITAL BOARD

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 4

DUNEDIN HOSPITAL BOARD

CLUTIIA ALARMED BY LEVIES,

A SEPARATE HOSPITAL PROPOSED.

A circular which the Clutha County Council received from the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board on Friday showed that the proposed levy on local bodies for 1915-1916 was £22.371 5s 2d (levy for 1913-1914 was £15,797 12s sd, making an increase of £6573 12s 9d for the coming year). Clutha’s estimate apportioned levy was £2391 17s 6d (last year £1515 12s 9d—an increase of £876 4s 9d). The table showed that Clutha County was the largest contributor next to Dunedin City, which is set down at £9452 2s 6d. The board’s estimated expenditure shows an increase of £16,826, as compared with the estimated expenditure made by the board for the year ended March, 1915. Last year the board expended £48,000; the extimated expenditure for the year ending March, 1916, is £65,000.

Cr Begg, at the meeting of the council on Friday, said that the increase seemed to" bo altogether abnormal. He quoted figures from the estimates, and said that the bulk of the extra expense seemed to be for the erection of a nurses’ home. Clutha was called on to contribute about £2300. This would carry a pound for pound Government subsidy to the board, •which meant that the board would derive about £SOOO on account of the levy from Clutha. If the levies were going to increase like this the county should get the control of local hospital matters into its own hands. The outdoor charitable aid received in Clutha this last year amounted to £239, while nearly everybody going from Clutha into the hospital for treatment paid reasonable fees. Yet Clutha was called on to contribute almost £2400 to the city board. Surely a local hospital could be run here, and all other requirements met for £SOOO a year. The council should take this matter into consideration.

Or Gumming- (who is the council’s representative on t'ho Otago Hospital and Charitable Awl Board) said he was in sympathy with what had been said about the greatincrease in levies. He was not at the special meeting of the board when the estimated list was prepared, but this coming year the board would have to find about £16,000 for capital expenditure, and so it was necessary to make additional levies on contributing local bodies amounting to £BOOO, and the contributions would carry a pound for pound Government subsidy. The extra expenditure was required for the erection of a nurses’ home. The levies should have boon raised last year, but during the last four years the board had been endeavouring to keep the levies down. Four years ago the demand on contributing local bodies was. £38,000. The expense of the nurses’ homo was forced on the board, because it was not allowed to build on the hospital sitc,_ and about £9OOO had to be paid for a site across the street. In the last year outdoor relief had increased by £IOOO, and although the board tried to keep it down the expense could not bo helped. Ho admitted that there was dissatisfaction at the state of things, but it could not ho helped.

Cr Bogg: Four years ago the hoard’s expenditure was £38,000. and last year it was £48,000, so that it went up £IO.OOO in three years. The total estimated expenditure for the coming year is £65.000. Cr Gumming said that the increased capital valuation of the hoard’s 1 district was about £700,000, and Clutha’s increased valuation alone represented about half of that sum. That was why the levy on Clutha appeared to bo so high. Cr Bogg: Is this expenditure of £16,000 on the nurses’ homo abnormal, or will there be some more buildings needed next year? What wo want to know is how long will this abnormal expenditure last. Cr Gumming: Well, the fever hospital at Lake Logan is condemned, and the hoard will have to erect a new one at Wakari, costing about £6OOO. Cr Bogg: I think under the circumstances we should attend to the controlling of our own hospital and charitable aid. I am not

concerned about the board’s circumstances, but what I am concerned about is that £Z3OO odd has to be found from this county this year, and so would it not be better to attend to our own affairs? I move that the clerk look into the matter and see if it is possible to become detached ■ from the Otago Hospital district, and have Clutha set up as a separate district. This motion was seconded by Or North and carried.