TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, 26th MAY, 1941. HOSPITAL RATING.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. MONDAY, 26th MAY, 1941. HOSPITAL RATING.

OF interest to the public bodies of New Zealand is a proposed new system in respect to hospital rating. For .many years counties, councils, municipal bodies and town boards have had to face the increasing cost of hospital upkeep, and to levy higher rates on property owners consequent upon the greater financial demands of hospital institutions, which by legislation are practically empowered to demand greater sums year by year. The passing of the Social Security Act meant the receipt by hospital boards of revenue which should have been followed by decreased levies on local bodies, but on account of the ever increasing costs by reason of the greater number of patients being registered, the desired reductions have not come to pass. Naturally the Government has been fully apprised of the state ot affairs financially, and the newlyappointed Minister of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, has had to give the subject more than a partial consideration, and he has stated that a more equitable system of rating whereby the upkeep of hospitals will be a national and not a local cost, will lie evolved. The president of the Municipal Association recently stated that the Municipal and Counties Associations have for many years been striving to evolve such a scheme, being convinced that the only equitable system of rating for hospital expenditure is by levy on wages and salaries. This principle has been adopted in part under the Social Security Act. Under that Act hospital expenditure to the extent of 6s- per day per patient was raised by the tax on wages and salaries. An additional charge of slightly more than one penny in the pound in the Social Security levy would have taken the load off ratepayers. The Minister' of Health may, or may not, be willing to adopt the suggestion of the Local Bodies Association, especially that in regard to an increase of even one penny in the pound on wages and salaries. Perhaps it would be better to legislate in the direction of allocating a given 'sum from the Consolidated Fund. This fund already has heavy commitments per annum, but it is in the position of registering a very heavy revenue. This revenue includes in its list of “Easy Money” the totalisator taxation of the Dominion, equal to a very high amount which, if specially devoted to hospital finance would in itself greatly decrease the rating of public bodies. The proposal to increase the Social Security levy by a further charge on wages and salaries would not be as acceptable to the people as a whole as one favouring the Government’s revenue from racing being made available for the purpose here indicated.