MATRON EWART

Southland Times, Issue 19291, 9 July 1924, Page 5

MATRON EWART

MINISTER AND HOSPITAL BOARD. PENSION DEDUCTED FROM SUBSIDY. (Special to the Times). WELLINGTON, July 8. The Minister of Health (Sir Maui Pomare) has exercised his powers to direct that the pension payable to Matron Ewart of the Southland Hospital be deducted from the subsidy, owing to the refusal of the Board to pay her more than a pension for four years in respect of her 23 years’ sendee. The Minister sent the following letter to the Southland Hospital Board on June 28, 1924: “I regret to note that your Board is not prepared to grant your late Matron, Miss Ewart, a pension as suggested in my letter of 17th May. Under these circumstances I have no alternative than to advise your Board that a sum will be deducted from the subsidy payable to your Board, so as to allow a pension of £2 per week to be paid Miss Ewart. I regret that under the circumstances I have no alternative, if justice is to be done your late Matron in this respect.” This was in reply to a letter from the Secretary of the Southland Hospital Board stating that the Board was not agreeable to alter its previous decision to grant Miss Ewart a pension of £2 per week for four years from May 1, 1924. The Director-General, in reply to two letters received from Miss Ewart, wrote to say that the Department would espouse her cause and make every endeavour to make the Board realise the injustice the members had done her. In his communication to the Board, recommending the payment of a pension to Miss Ewart, the Minister of Health said: • “The Director-General of Hospitals has placed before me the proposal of your Board that the Matron of the Southland Hospital, Miss Ewart, be granted a pension of £2 per week for four years from May 1, 1924. I am sorry to hear that Miss Ewart who has been for 23 years matron of your hospital, is about to retire, but I am still more sorry to hear that your Board does not propose to recompense her more adequately after her long and faithful service. I understand that the Director-General of Hospitals has written to you on this matter and that the present proposal of your Board is the outcome. However, I am of opinion that your Board might well grant a larger pension and therefore, as Minister of this Department, I ask you to grant Miss Ewart a retiring allowance at the rate of £lOO per annum, which your Board is empowered to grant to a servant of such a long and honourable service. I may say that so far as this Department is concerned, it will gladly pay its portion of that sum through the usual subsidy.”