The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1905. WHAT SEPARATION WOULD MEAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12795, 29 September 1905, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1905. WHAT SEPARATION WOULD MEAN.

The Waimate Hospital Tnistots, at their meeting on Wednesday, made a rather belated attempt to identify themselves with the Bill introduced into Parliament this session for the purpose of severing Waimate from the South Canterbury hospital and charitable aid district. We hive on

previous occasions expressed the opinion that if separation is desiiabie and necessary, the Trustees ate the people who should be most cognisant of the fact, and who should take the steps tequircd to secure separation. Apparently thty or their predecessors thought so too fourteen years "ago, but as the Trustees in 1891 failed to accomplish the desired «nd, the present directors of the institution sow piofess to believe that it is "best for the contributing local authorities to promote another Bill with the same object in view." If the Mayor of Waimate fails this year, as there seems every prospect that he will, we wonder who will next be tried as promoter of a Hospital Separation Bill! If ine failure is enough to condeirfn the Trustees, it ought to be enough to condemn the "contributing local authorities" also, and next time the separation movement is revived, somebody else will have to be tried. We can only express the , hope that the somebody else will show a little more respect and consideration for the Trustees than they appear to havef received from the promoter or promoters cf this year's Bill, which, on the admission of Mr Sinclair, has never been submitted to them in any shape or - form. However, we suppose that as long as the Tiustees.are content to be ignored in this manner, nobody else has any reason to object. We merely suggest that members of Patliament, as ordinary individuals, mast naturally expect any proposal affecting the Waimate Hospital to emanato from the Waimate' Hospital Trustees, and they mnst ba pardoned if they look with a certain amount of amused .suspicion upon a Hospital Separation Bill which, in the words of the chairman, " has never been brought before the Trustees at all." The members of the House will also, we think, have a certain amount of difficulty in following the' logic of the Trustees. Mr Sinclair said on Wednesday that the Bill only meant that the borough and county thought they should have a.separate institution. " Everything," he said, "had been going on smoothly,, and might continue to do so." Apparently, therefore, the present; arrangement is working quite satisfactorily as far as the Trustees are concerned, but the borough and county are not content Yet ia spite of this admission of satisfaction -.villi the existing condition of affairs, the Trustees passed expressing " its unaltered conviction that nething shott of complete separation from the northern part of tbft district .will meet the requirements of the case, and secure proper hospital management for Waimate, and the' duo administration of charitable aid." By. this resolution the Trustees conrjct themselves of failing in the proper dischargs of their duties as administrators of the Waimat* hospital, and they convict their representatives on .the central Board, who attend to local applications for charitable aid, of neglecting the inteiests of the necessitous residents of their district. Xow let us see what would bs the result, as far as Waimate is concerned, of securing separation. In the first place they would require an old men's home of their own, with a staff to- look after it. With a hospital and charitable aid district, tlieir Office

ttJW, '.r nt.ii !*I • slaty. 1 be bwiiJ l« incic.vc <•!•?.» aj.d sb,. ratio of cost of adminirtjati.n Jo tie total aiMdiMK. which is aljiidy |,;<t!y iii-'n in Wn;mat<*. . "r 1 .5 £."« ttill Iridic. \\ .■ <i<i not m_v llut ll.c Waiinatc a« oniduited on expensive li:ie«.. iai it > inevitable tJiat "Lo administrative < • 1 in insiitutic-ns should be bigbir in pro ]i»ni«n linn in latter o nr-cms-. Accord-■ ins »•> the la't-s! depaitirii-Mal rcpr.tt i3.c ii the cost <-i administration on tbc total txpenditaie if follow in iJic' tiro South Canl'tbmy horpiials : Timaru Waimate - -51.5* The necessary corollary t« lie multipliedtion of bo«pilal« and hospital district* is the frittering away of tbc ratepayer*" money, not in the itlicf of suffering and disease, but in salaries and othVr administrative expenses. N'carly ba3f tbc money spent las-t year in Waima'.e went in ad ministration, and if tbe separationist ft et tbeir way. even sn«re will be diss:paled in tbc same dim-lion.