HUNTLY MEDICAL CLUB

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 11

HUNTLY MEDICAL CLUB

SPEAKERS AT VARIANCE (From Our Own Correspondent) HUNTLY, Today. 1 A meeting called to consider the j formation of a medical club for Huntly was presided over by Mr. E. George, ! chairman of the Huntly Town Board. Mr. George outlined the preliminary steps taken, and reported the result of j an interview with the Wairoa Hospital Board authorities. Jit which meeting the Hon. A. J. Stall worthy was present. Mr. George said that if £SOO is subscribed by the club a resident doctor at the local hospital will be appointed. and if £I,OOO is forthcoming two medical men will be appointed. It was also pointed out that the board would pay medical jtnd hospital fees with free ambulance and attendance in the patients’ homes. The representative of the district on the Hospital Board Mr. George Smith, concurred. He considered it problematical if efficiency would be maintained if only one doctor were appointed, as operations would be limited. Mr. Smith also stated that the R.S.A. would give its support toward the movement, and that the Hospital Board would give free medicine jind free ambulance, with free hospital and home treatment, for £2 per annum a member. Mr. R. L. Roberts, of the executive I committee of the Huntly Medical So- ' ciety, which consists of principally the 1 ■ Taupiri Coal Company’s employees, emphatically denied that the state- : ments of Messrs. George and Smith were correct. He said he was one of the deputation that waited on the Hospital Board and he took strong exception to the miss-statements of the speakers named. Beyond the offer of £ 500 for the medical officer, no offer of free ambulance, etc., had been made by the board, and he had an official letter from the secretary of the board to that effect. He was surprised by the utterances of the two previous peakers. Xeither Mr. George nor Mr. Smith gave any explanation of Mr. Roberts’s • comment. The chairman asked for a show of : hands from those in favour of the object of the movement, namely, better hospital conditions in Iluntly, and there were only a few hands raised in | dissent. Mr. E. George is president of the j Huntly branch of the Labour Party. I and Sir. Roberts is president of the ' Rotowaro Miners’ Union.