The Hospitals Bill.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3799, 4 June 1908, Page 2

The Hospitals Bill.

By Telegraph.—Press Association Wellington, Last Night.

A hospital and charitable aid conference will be held on Tuesday next to discuss the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Amendment Bill and suggest any alterations and modifications that may be found necessary regarding the administration of hospital and charitable aid throughout New Zealand. There are 80 boards and separate institutions represented, and as each has one or more delegates it is expected that the total number of delegates present will be about 50. Last year the sum of £200,000 was spent on hospitals and charitable aid. The amount is steadily increasing, and it is thought that the time has arrived for the expenditure to be placed under more adequate control. The conference will probably last a week or ten days.

The great question is that of representation. How are the boards to be constituted, and how elected? This is the riddle to be solved by the delegates. The proposal is to centralise the administration. A large number of the remits sent in are in strong disapproval of the proposal to reduce the Government subsidy. The Bill proposes to enlarge the districts and to facilitate the centralisation of the administration. Some of the remits from the country districts oppose this. One remit is to the effect that provision should be made in the Bill whereby harbour boards should be placed as a medium for the cost of all accidents occurring about shipping. The bill provides that the board may pay its chairman a sum not exceeding £2OO per annum. There is a difference of opinion on the question, and some suggest that travelling allowances to chairman and members when away from their places of residence and on offiical duties should take the place of the annual allowance. Another remit affirms the principle that appointments, such as those of medical superintendents and matrons of hospitals, should be made only with the approval of the Minister.