CORRESPONDENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17968, 8 September 1920, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

RAETIHI HOSPITAL. To the Editor. Sir, —For downright misrepresentation commend me to the Vv'aimarino Member of Parliament, Mr R. W. Smith, when he told the House —and the Hon. Parr—that the “Wanganui Hospital Board were not moving in the direction of establishing a hospital at Raelihi or Ohukune.” All one can say of such an assertion is that probably pool “Bobby” has not visited his district lately, or that he was only “playing to the gallery,” one of the usual failings 01 a poor politician. Now, if “Bobby" will inquire from the Hospital Board's representative in his district, or the Raelihi Hospital Committee, lie will be made wise to the following fact: When, some twelve or eighteen months back, the request was made to the Hospital Board tor a hospital in the Waimarino, both Ohakune and Raetihi desired the building in their own township. After the Wanganui Hospital Board had discussed the subject it was decided by the Board to take the advice of the Health Department on the matter, was fixed upon as the locality. Then the question of building sites delayed.matters some months. Three sites were made available—one the Hospital Reserve, one a native-owned property, and one privately-owned section. The first two were visited by the Hospital Board's chairman and architect, and each site had decided drawbacks for the purpose of a hospital. but the third section was eventually agreed upon by all as being an ideal site. Then the Government Health Department had to approve of it, and its purchase and transfer had to be completed before the section could be dealt with, after which a contract was let to some returned soldiers to level the site. . hese men had bad luck in meeting solid papa formation, which had to be blasted away, and also a spell of wet weather, and were some months on the work, but to their credit they completed the excavations and levelling only a few weeks ago, although at a loss. The Board gave instructions for the preparation of plans, and such plans had to be submitted to and approved by the Health Department, and money had to be collected in Raetihi for the purpose of the building. The Board then instructed the architect to call for tenders for the Raetihi Hospital—a building designed chiefly for maternity cases, but also providing for urgent accident and medical cases which cannot very well be sent to the base hospital at Wanganui. Now “Bobby" knows full well that, all such preliminaries cannot be executed in a day, any more than some of his electioneering promises can; but it seems strange indeed that he made his complaints in the House that he could not get the Wanganui I Hospital Board to do anything towards a hospital at Raetihi or Ohakune after the Board’s architect had taken the hospital plans to Raetihi for their committee to call tenders for the building. Probably he had been suddenly put wise 'that the Wanganui Hospital Board were erecting a hospital for the Waimarino district, but he probably desired to get in a cheap electioneering advertisement before the tender were actually called for the building. His plea for the “struggling settlers” no doubt sounded very nice from the gallery, but in all the negotiations for the site and collection of the required money for Government subsidy. etc., we do not see “Bobby” bobbing up much in evidence in these transactions, but he comes to light at the eleventh hour with a belated plea that “he cannot get the Wanganui Hospital Board to move. ’ Poor chap! Well, now that he appears so concerned about “struggling Raetihi settlers,” I will suggest to him that he at once sets about assisting some of those who were burnt out in the terrible fire, and had to re-build, by getting them a refund of the “railway freights on timber from Ohakune to Raetihi,” when such timber never saw a railway truck, but was delivered to the settlers in drays direct from the mills. Our Magistrate, Mr Wilson, exposed these illegal charges made by the sawmillers in a case recently at Taihape, where a settler who was burnt out near Raetihi refused to allow his builder to pay this extraordinary and illegal demand made by the sawmillers. Strange to say, this important case has not. been reported in papers in this district. However. now that it has been exposed in open Court it is up to the mills to reform in all cases, and to R. W. Smith, M.P., to see that there is no delay in the refunding of this illegal "railway freight," and when this is done those settlers who were billed for such “freight” will come into their own once more, and no doubt some—if they can afford to spare the “dividend”—will hand it over to the Raetihi Hospital Committee as a donation towards this worthy institution for the improvemer.t of the grounds. Anyway, this railway freight money does.not belong to the Sawmillers’ Association, so we trust “Bobby” will see to it without delay—it will make another ] quite good political move.—l am, etc., SETTLER.