HOSPITAL BOARD LEVIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3201, 21 July 1915, Page 3

HOSPITAL BOARD LEVIES.

TO THE EDITOR.

Silt, —I notice that Mr Walker takes exception to some of the statements in my report to the Bruce County Council on hospital and charitable aid levies. lam not surprised at that, but he does not prove the statements to be inaccurate. Mr Walker declared that the city of Dunedin was rated for hospital and charitable aid at equivalent to This, I said, was wrong, and I again say it is wrong. As regards foodstuffs, my estimate was ■ based on the Australian statistics which worked out at 18.8 per cent, for all Australia, and I am certain that 20 per cent, would cover the average increase for Now Zealand—outside the Hospital, of course. “The saving of life and the ameliorating of suffering.” How well it sounds! No contributing body has ever taken, or over would take, exception to- pounds spent in the saving of life or the ameliorating of suffering, but let me show Mr Walker the other side of the picture. Mothers in the country have to nurse their own sick, pay their own doctors’ expenses —double, and sometimes treble what is paid in the city, often waiting hours before they ran got medical help; they must do their own housework single-handed, and often milk several cows, and if they wish to visit their next-door neighbour, they have to traverse roads boot-deep in mud and water. Gn top of all this they are taxed to build in Dunedin the nicest nurses’ home in the dominion, How would the champion of suffering humanity like to live under these conditions? Mr Walker cays I never saw a balance sheet, and must have dreamt about it. How could I dream the following statements: Maintenance Estimated outstanding, to produce. Dunedin Hospital £11,452 8 2 £l,lOO Fever Hospital ... 527 6 6 50 Tuapeka Hospital ... 458 0 0 40 Maternity Hospital 130 0 0 10 Kaitangata Hospital 56 14 6 5 Palmerston Sanatorium 451 2 9 40 Port Chalmers Hospital 12 11 9 1 Tapanui Hospital 137 7 0 10 Examined and found correct, except that: — There is no authority of law for the arrangement between the board and the United Friendly Societies for the rendering of Hospital services.—(Signed) R. J. Collins, C. and A. General. In the face of the above, will Mr Walker still say I have never seen a balance sheet? —I am, eta, Jaspeh Clark.