HOSPITAL LOAN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20898, 30 November 1937, Page 6

HOSPITAL LOAN

PROPOSAL AROUSES INDIGNATION EXTRAVAGANT COST ALLEGED By Telegraph—press Association WELLINTON, November 29. An indignation meeting called by the Wellington Ratepayers’ Association to protest against the Intention of the Wellington Hospital Board to raise a further loan of £159,250 for the purpose of carrying out the full rebuilding scheme was held to-night. The Chamber of Commerce Hall was packed. Members of the audience were perched on tables, piled along the side of the room almost to the roof and at the start of the meeting many were standing in the corridor unable even to gain admission. The following resolutions were carried with only four dissentients: “Having in view the paramount need of the patient and the most effective manner in which to obtain that objective, this meeting of citizens feels justly indignant at the wantonly extravagant proposal to enlarge the Wellington Hospital by 300 beds at a cost of £750,000—0r approximately £2500 a bed—whereas a new and up-to-date hospital thoroughly and fully equipped could be built in the Hutt Valley at a cost of not more than £5OO a bed, and such a proposal given effect to would be adequate for the next 10 years.”

“This meeting calls upon the Wellington City Council, as the main contributor and representing the ratepayers of Wellington, to appoint the Mayor and two members from its engineering staff, together with two independent architects and representatives of contributing bodies, to investigate the possible cost of any needed improvements at the Wellington Hospital and report upon the hospital and also upon the proposal for a new hospital in the Hutt Valley.”