CENSURE ON LABOUR MEMBER

Southland Times, Issue 23828, 27 May 1939, Page 6

CENSURE ON LABOUR MEMBER

FREE TOBACCO ISSUE IN HOSPITAL (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 26. By what was described as an overwhelming majority, about 190 delegates to the Auckland Labour Representation Committee carried a resolution at a meeting on Thursday night criticizing the action of Mrs M. M. Dreaver, one of the Labour Party’s representatives on the Auckland Hospital Board in not voting for the rescinding of the board’s earlier decision to discontinue the free issue of tobacco at the Epsom infirmary. The resolution was placed before the delegates in the form on a recommendation from the executive of the Labour Representation Committee. The delegates were stated to represent about 38,000 members of the Labour Party in Auckland, and, with few exceptions, they voted in approval of the recommendation. The text was as follows; That this executive disagrees with Mrs Dreaver’s action in supporting the chairman of the Hospital Board on the question of depriving the inmates of the Epsom infirmary of the allocation of tobacco and in then’ opinion she committed a serious error of judment. When the recommendation was placed before the meeting it resulted in considerable discussion during which Mrs Dreaver made a statement explaining why she had voted in favour of letting the board’s previous decision stand. She repeated what she had said at meetings of the board that as a result of the Government’s social security legislation, men patients now had sufficient funds with which to buy their tobacco. The time had also come for charitable rations to be abolished. Mrs Dreaver added that as a result of the board’s decision women patients were at last placed on the same plane as the men. Mrs Dreaver said today that she did not want to discuss the position. Members of the Labour Representation Committee also said they had no statement to make.