THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3473, 11 February 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1880.

The Hospital and Charitable Institutions Bill, drafted by the Hon. John Hall, has been distributed, and in order that our readers may have some knowledge of its provisions, we make a number of extracts from it: —In the interpretation clauses the word " Hospital means any establishment instituted for the reception, relief, treatment and cure of disease, and established or maintained under any Act or Ordinance, &c." Clearly therefore the Thames possesses no hospital that would be affected by this Bill as it now stands, and this remark applies to "Charitable In stitutibn," the jwhich if supported by voluntary subscriptions a 9 on the Thames must have been formed of not less than 50 persons, who for two consecutive years have paid to ita funds not less than-one pound each, or a sum of ten pounds in one donation, to qualify it to be made even' a voluntary charitable institution subject to the provisions of the proposed Bill. The Act as a whole ha 3 evidently been drawn to meet the requirements of the more favored Southern provinces of the Colony, whose hospitals and charitable institutions have large endowments as may be seen at a glance by the schedule of Acts and Ordinances, the Bill proposes to repeal, viz., 6, that relate to institutions-in the provincial district of Wellington; 2, in Taranaki; 1, in Canterbury; and 5, in province of Otago. By the proposed Bill ■the Governor has power to constitute hospital districts ofsuch sizes and dimensions as he thinks fit, and to declare which local bodies within such district shall contribute to the support of the hospital and charitable institutions therein, the amounts so to be contributed to be assessed and fixed according to population. The Governor also fixes the number of the members to be elected to form " The Hospital and Charitable Aid Board" of the district, and what proportion of those members each local body shall elect. In such* Board is vested the entire control and management of all hospitals Bnd charitable institutions within the district. Any person qualified to be elected as a member of.a Borough Council, County Council or Boad Board shall be eligible to be elected as a member of the Board. The Council or members of every local body shall elect the Board as follows :—lf during the past year the local body has contributed to the Hospital and Charitable Aid- Boards' funds less than £100 it shall have one vote; if over £100 and under £200, two votes; if over $200 and under £350, three votes ; if over £350 and under £500, four votes; if above £500 fire votes. If in any hospital district any two local bodies between them "contribute less than £100, then those local bodies have only;-one vote between them. Nominations for seats on the Board are made by the local bodies to a Returning Officer, and if too many persons are nominated the "decision is by ballotmembers being elected for three years. The Board so elected becomes a body corporate, and- all real-and personal pro,-,, perty of any hospital or charitable institution is vested in it". The Board may lease such lands—agricultural lands for 21 and building allotments for 50 years, and may appoint and ve.ijjove medical ofScers, nurses and other atten-' dants, secretaries and other officers, and pay the same out of its fijpds, The' Governor appoints an inspector of hospitals and charitable institutions, who may visit such institutions whenever he elects to do so without notice. Every inspector shall report on each hospital and its maoagement to the Governor and to Parliament. Every person in receipt of relief from any hospital or charitable iustitution will bo liable to pay any sura not exceeding 20s a week, and the Board may, if su^U sum be not paid, sue the person so relieved or his near relatives for the amount as a debt due to the Bourd. The funds of fciie Board shall consist of—-1, grants by the Parliament; .2, contributions from local bodi-s ; 3, donations and subscriptions from the charitable; ai?ilre»ts and profits of lands, the property of. .the Board. Contributions due from local faodisß jf one month ib arrear, may be sued for by fye Board. Local bodu s who contribute may raise &uph amount by a rate, to be struck for such pQi-pope, put sa.ch rate shall bo struck, levied, arid collected under the provisions of the Rating Act, 18X6. Jf "focal .bodies are in arrear, and fail to' make -a ' rate, the Colonial Treasurer may deduct sucb amount fro^j any monies payable to such local body, and payj£ over to the Board. Accounts are to be kept balanced and au.diiei, and if any monies have beeu appropriated, spent, or disposed of by the Board isi a jpa&u©? .tt-pfc a^t'uonsed jjy the

Act, the Auditor is to sue and recover the j same from the members of the Board, who are j^iutly and severally liab'e. The Board usay miike grants to auy voluntary charitable association, but such grants can only bo made out of monies received by it as voluntary subscriptions or donations given expressly for the pu'pose of affording outdoor relief to sick, in igent, or inh'ruv poor. The provisions of (he last mentioned section alone would make the act quite unsuitable for the Thames, where ouidoor relief by the means of rations and assistance to the families of the min^r and labourer, stuck down by accident, illness cr d>ath, at the present moment costs our "local bodies alone from £400 to £600 a year. To say the funds contributed by each local body to the District Hospital land Charitable Aid Board shall not be available for outdoor relief, but only for the- maintenance of hospital patients, orphans, and inmatew of the old people's refuge would bave the effect of filling these institutions to their fullest extent, and of leaving a very large sum to be collected by appeals to the charitable or by an additional payment in addition to the poor rate out of local ■ funds. With reference to voluntary charifable institutions which term represents all-those now in operation at the Thames, the proposed bill provides a means whereby for'certainpurposes they may on petition be brought under the provisions of the act. First, they must have at least 50 subscribes, who have each for 2 years paid £1 per anuum, or £10 in one donation. The Governor on receipt of the petition signed by not less than 20 of such subscriners, asking that iho j particular institution to which t icy are subscribers may be made subject to the provision of the Bill, shall' cause such petition to be publicly notified, and if no counter petition signed^ by an equal or greater number of snbscriFersbepresßßted to the Governor within a month from thdate of the public notification of such first petition, then by order in council, such institution becomes a voluntary charitable institution under the provisions, of the Bill. The Governor makes regulations for defining the powers, duties and functions of such institution, by whom it is to be managed, the" time and manner of the annual election of committees, and the number of votes each subscriber shall give. The quorum of the committee is also fixed by the Governor. The Governor may vest the control and,management of. any charitable institution* or the distribution of charitable aid, but not any Hospital, in ihe committee of any voluntary charitable institution brought under the provisions of the Bill, and if he does so alt power*, duties, and functions of the District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board shall cease so far as they relate to the -control and management of such charitable institution, or the distribution of charitable aid, but in no way do the functions of the District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board cease as regards the district or branch hospitals. Out of any votes passed by tlie.General Assembly for such purpose there may be paid to each hospital or charitable institution (voluntary charitable institutions are not apparently included), £1 for each £1 of grants from local bodies, subscriptions or donations received during each year by such hospital or institution to the extent necessary, but not more than will pay half the net cost of maintaining the came. The Bill to be introduced by the Hon. Mr Hall as given above is one not at all suitable to the Thames and districts similarly situated. It creates, should the "Hospital districts " be of medium extent, say to include a population of from 12 to 14 thousand, another local body with all its expensive official machinery to be maintained by extra rating of the residents, and should it be determined to make each Provincial District into the "Hospital district," then the centres of population, such as at the Thames and Coromandel, through their respective local bodies, are forced vto pay proportionately for the management, care and maintenance of the main hospital erected in the provincial capital, whereas they can derive little or any benefit therefrom. The' Bill is simply reverting back to the old system that was in force at the Thames until July of 1878, when not-' withstanding we had our own hospital for a period of ten years and treated therein five, six, seven, and sometimes eight hundred patients yearly, many of the cases being serious accidents incidental to the industry of the place, necessitating amputation of limbs and surgical operations of magnitude^ and also had established our cttaritable and benevolent society tfor aiding with food and clothing the poor and infirm, yet the, local bodies had deductions made regularly from their Government grants and subsidies, amounts thai, pro rata according to population, would have been equitable if the 'ihames sick had all gone to the Auckland hospital for treatment, or if no local charitable society had maintained from its funds the deserving poor and infirm of the district. By the proposed Bill the Thames and Corotnandel hospitals would receive from the District Hospital and Charitable Aid Board no aid or portion of the forced contributions .or poor rate collected from ihe inhabitants of Thames or Coromandelj those n)pnie3- would go to the support of the Auckland hospital, whereas the local hospitals, not being hospitals within the meaniiig given in the BjJ!, would have to be supported as hitherto by h(ss.l subscriptions if kept open ; or else closed, in which case, no matter how urgent- the .case, how seyere th^e accident, the sufferer must await the starting of the boat and put up with the long sea journey to the Auckland hospital. Neither doeg th« maintenance of a local hospital by voluntary subscriptions relieve the district from having to pay for the District Hospital. We question very much should this Bill become law' if the local bodies would not be very much hampered during the time infectious and contagious diseases were prevalent; the powers conferred On local Boards of Health by the Public Health Act vwould clash wiili_ those of th_o lJjstrjct Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards. Meither .do we see any provision made, after the hospital and. charitable aid districts have been fixed by the Governor, for defining whafc shall entitle any person to receive medical ti'aaJS.tpent or charitable aid from the institutions within tb_e boundaries of such district, or to prevent persons resident in or belonging to any other district, ■■ whore from some cause, say, an unskilfuldoctor 6i" riegleetful nursing, leaving their own district "and presenting themselves for treatment aud r^ lief &i li6spita|s £nd institutions in a district where higher «;edical skill and more humane treatment were to beobi^jned. The 1, question of parish must and will crop up jyherever a poor rate is struck or a hospital and i charitable did district defined. Mr Hall's J Bill .to us appears c«BjWrsome, expensiy* J

in its working, and in its present stage very crude and incomplete, rioter utf all suitable to tho centres of popuftiions of minining districts and quite diverse from local seif;govei:iHuei)t. • •