HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19867, 15 June 1927, Page 7

HOSPITAL MAINTENANCE.

It is essential That there should be some organisation representative of the whole Dominion charged with the task of formulating a scheme by which the cost of maintaining hospitals and providing for charitable aid would be placed upon a more equitable basis. It must be recognised at the outset that an obligation rests upon . wealth to provide succour for the suffering and distressed sections of the community. That is the fundamental principle upon which a share of the burden is cast upon local rates, the sum so raised being subsidised by the State from the Consolidated Fund. But the pursuance of that course in the Dominion ignores the important fact that there are other forms of wealth besides landed estate. There are a great many people in the enjoyment of large incomes who own little or no land, and who escape the payment of their legitimate quota to the fund required for the sustenance of what may for convenience be designated the institutions of relief. Some means should be devised by which that important section of the community would discharge a rightful obligation. —Oamaru Mail.