ARAPUNI WORKERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17277, 13 December 1927, Page 8

ARAPUNI WORKERS.

MEDICAL NEEDS DISCUSSED. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. A deputation from the Arapuni Medical Club, in the person of Mr Rabone, of the Public Works Staff at Arapuni, waited on the Minister of Health, lion. J. A. Young, and Dr. Valintine, Inspector-General of Health, at Hamilton, yesterday! with reference to obtaining a subsidy for the Medical Club. Members of the Waikato Hospital Board were also present. Mr Rabone explained the position, as set out in our columns last Tuesday, and with the decrease in the number of workers at Arapuni, the funds of the club would fall correspondingly and the contributions to the hospital would drop from half fees, as at present, to very much lower. They would probably also be unable to subsidise a doctor as they were now doing, though possibly they would he able to keep on the nurse. Mr C. Johnstone, chairman of the Hospital Board, put the position of the Board before the Minister. Briefly it was that the Board had already lost £2OOO as a result of treatment of patients from Arapuni. As the contract was of a national nature and as the workers came from aU parts of New Zealand, it was felt that the burden thus thrown on the ratepayers in the Board s area was most unfair, and tire Government was looked to for some assistance. Dr. Valintine said there was really no need for a hospital aL Arapuni, with the base hospital so near, telephone communication and good roads. The Minister said he was in communication with the Minister of Public Works on the matter. Although the attitude of the Public Works Department in the past had been that the contract was a private one, this condition would soon he altered, when the Government took over the balance of the contract.' Mr Rabone said he expected the contractors would finish their poilion of the works in about three weeks time. Thereafter only a maintenance staff would he employed until the work was completed. The Minister promised not to lose sight of the matter,;and to put the new phase of the question before the Minister ,°f Public Works.