A BIG INCREASE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20932, 11 January 1938, Page 5

A BIG INCREASE

HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE By Telegraph Press Association ASHBURTON. January 10. “It must cause very serious consideration of the whole position; it is Dominion-wide, and we have very little control over it,” said the chairman of the Ashburton Hospital Board (Mr W. G. Gallagher) this morning, when he quoted figures showing the continued and rapid increase in the Board’s expenditure over the last four or five years. For the financial period from March 1 to December 3, the sum spent by the Board was £20,570 12s 9d, which was £2460 higher than the expenditure in 1936. The increase over the figure for 1935 was £4282, £5176 over 1934, and £6549 over 1933. Mr C. A. Campion said the Board was a party to a vicious circle. The chairman: No matter what we do, there are things arising over which we have no control. It is very fine indeed to find that payments have largely offset the position. There is no escape from the fact that the future holds no release from increased levies on the contributing bodies. I say that because the ratepayers may be looking for decreased levies. We can congratulate ourselves on the fact that we do not have to face any of the big loans that many local bodies have been raising. Mr Campion: The whole thing is that the present Government has made the sky the lin.it.

Mr W. Bryant said that the- country had little control over the problem. Mr Campion: It will all stop . with a jolt if things start suddenly overseas.