HEALTH CAMP AT ROXBURGH

Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 6

HEALTH CAMP AT ROXBURGH

Construction Will Start Soon ACCOMMODATION FOR 108 CHILDREN PROVISION FOR PERMANENT OCCUPANTS (Special to The Times) DUNEDIN, September 9. A start is soon to be made on the construction at Roxburgh on the site presented by the Roxburgh Borough Council of the permanent children’s health camp, which in the terms of the King George V Memorial Fund, will serve North Otago, Otago and Southland. The provincial district’s funds which enable this and other projects throughout the Dominion to be undertaken, were provided by public subscription as a memorial to King George V. Definite progress has been made with the Roxburgh project and the architects, Messrs Miller and White (Dunedin) and Mr A. C. Ford (Invercargill) are already at work drawing up plans and specifications for the permanent establishment.

It is proposed that there should be full-time accommodation at Roxburgh for 50 children. The proposal provides for complete accommodation and recreation with school premises within the camp. The school buildings will be so designed that they can be converted easily into dormitories, thus allowing for the accommodation of an additional 58 children during the summer holidays. No definite information as to when the work of construction will actually be started is available until the production of the architects’ plans which will require to be approved by the central council in Wellington. It is expected, however, that the camp will be ready for use during the summer of 1939. / The selection of Roxburgh as the site of the Otago-Southland unit in the Dominion chain is justified by the central position which the borough occupies and also because of its healthy climate. BOARD TO ADMINISTER FUND PROVISION OF NEW BILL (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 9. The appointment of a board to administer the King George V Memorial Fund is provided for in the King George V Memorial Fund Bill, which was introduced by Governor-General’s Message in the House of Representatives today. The preamble to the • Bill states that the fund established by the Government in 1937 to provide children’s health camps in New Zealand as a memorial to King George V now amounts to £177,635 10/6, of which one half was raised by public subscription and .the other half provided by the Government.

The board is to be known as the King George V Memorial Fund Board. It is to consist of the Minister of Health, who will be chairman, the Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs, who will be deputy-chairman, the president of the New Zealand Municipal Association, the president of the New Zealand Counties’ Association and the president of the New Zealand Hospital Boards’ Association. The general function of the board will be to administer the fund for the purpose of establishing, improving and maintaining children’s health camps. The board is also to be authorized to make grants to the National Federation of Health Camps or to any other body engaged in the promotion or administration of children’s health camps. An advisory committee is to be appointed and appointments will be mad" by the Minister of Health. However, it is stipulated that in addition to other members whom he may appoint, there are to be on the committee representatives of the Department of Health, the Education Department, the Post and Telegraph Department and the National Federation of Health Camps or of some similar organization. The Minister may appoint to the committee by virtue of their offices members of the Dominion advisory board of the federation. All moneys belonging to the fund are to be paid into an account at the Reserve Bank. Expenditure on children’s health camps is to be made only on the requisition of the Director-General of Health, pursuant to a resolution of the advisory committee. However, the board may refuse to comply with any such requisition. Local authorities and others, including trustees of savings banks, are authorized to contribute to the fund. All contributions made to the fund before the passing of the Bill are to be validated. All land vested in the board and held by it as a site of a children’s health camp is to be exempt from the payment of rates and taxes. In order that as much as possible of the fund will be s available for the purpose for which it was established, all expenses incurred in the administration of the Bill are to be paid out of moneys appropriated by Parliament. The board is to submit an annual report and statement of accounts for presentation to Parliament and there is the usual clause providing for the issue of regulations. The Bill was read a first time.