PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21417, 10 May 1941, Page 11

PUBLIC OPINION

! CURRENT VIEWPOINTS j DECISION IN COMMITTEE (To the Editor.) j Sir, —Referring to your report re- : garding the salaries increase for (nurses and others at the Waikato j Hospital, might I ask the chairman j why it was necessary to go into com- ; mittee?- This is a matter of public , u i interest and should have been dis- >*>' cussed in open seeing it is i public money that is' being expended, •e '—l am, etc., a | RATEPAYER. I 1 j Hamilton, May 9. li I HOSPITAL SALARIES j (To the Editor.) = j Sir.—l have written the following * j letter to the chairman of the Waikato Hospital Board:— - j I want to make a definite protest j against this general rise in salaries ii i at such a time as this—a time when - ! the primary producer, on whom, in spite of new industries and entery prises New Zealand is wholly de- ’• pendant, when hi soutlook and v : chances are extremely dark. This is to my mind a time for the strictest - economy. Most of you gentlemen have blamed the Government for exii travagance. Are you going to plunge ; headlong down the same course? That ; way lies inflation, serious, runaway 3 inflation. Hospital boards, especially country ? ones, are in a peculiar position of • trust as regards their funds. We have not to account directly to those who j provide the money we administer, o We levy what we want; no one can ? | say us nay. Therefore it seems to ; me it should be a point of honour « | with us to guard those funds most > carefully, especially at a time when ■ the outlook of the ratepayer is most \ desperately precarious. Vve ail deplore any slackness in the country’s war effort; w; civilians wish we could do more, but there is one important effort that every belligerent country is asked to make ref rani , from using up commodities. Now ' these things we have under discussion may not matter as regards money j (the money of the world may have . to be readjusted everywhere), but ■ each rise means a further consumption of commodity—this is an anti- ! war effort. I simply hate to take this stand when I have just been four weeks in our wonderful hospital, and am full : of admiration and gratitude for all the care, efficiency and kindness I have experienced. It was more than a personal gratification. I have felt that a new era has come in the care of the sick, an era when rich and poor alike can receive all the benefit and the treatment required for healing and return to health. I have not forgotten that five months ago I advocated the raising << the salaries of the seven and I eight-year nurses. It was pointed out to me that an injustice—an anomaly.—existed in this case. There are probably other cases in thepe lists where the same things exist. If so, of course, every member of the board will be anxious to make the corrections if they are explained. It has always seemed to me that the board has altogether too little j time to consider the findings of the finance committee. It also seems hardly the thing for a dying board to commit the incoming board to such extensive expenditure. Could not the discussion and voting on rises take place at the first meeting of the new board-?—I am, etc., MRS H. M. WILSON. Hamilton, May 9.