PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21549, 11 October 1941, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

CURRENT VIEWPOINTS MUNICIPAL HALL PROPOSED .To the Editor) Sir,—Tiie Hamilton Borough Council at its last meeting referred to a special committee for a report on a proposal to erect a small hall for music and dramatic societies at a cost of £2400. Now this is the strange part. As soon as the sum of £2400 was mentioned the Mayor, Mr H. D. Caro, said that he would not hesitate to proceed with tiie building project.. Lie also said that such a hall was undoubtedly needed for small organisations. If the Mayor and his supporters want to put up a hall, why not do the job well and build a town hall, which I think everybody would sooner see in Garden Place, where there is plenty of room ? No; the Mayor and his supporters would sooner put up a doll’s house than a town hall. The time is coming when we will want a town hall for our overseas visitors. I say if you have £2400 to expend, expend it in the right way; then we will say, “ Well done, Mr Mayor."—l am, etc., J. MOODY. Hamilton, Oct. 10. MEDICAL BILL (To the Editor) Sir, —I notice a letter in tonight’s Times signed “ H.E.W.,” stating that Mr. Kenah is incorrect when he says that doctors and hospitals always have been free to those unable to pay. I would like to briefly give my own experience.

Four years ago—before Social Security—while in domestic service in the country I was taken suddenly ill, a doctor being called out to me during the night. Appendicitis was diagnosed and I was taken at once to the Waikato Hospital and operated upon without delay. After two weeks of the greatest care and kindness I was discharged a convalescent. The total hospital bill for the operation and two weeks in hospital was £7 10s. For my convalescence I returned to the orphanage where I xvas brought up and handed the hospital account to the matron, expecting it would be paid out of my wages, part of which had been lodged for safe keeping with the board, but I was told by the matron that as an orphan I would not be expected to pay anything. She must have been right, because the account never came in to me again. Also I would like it to be known that the doctor who came out to me in the country in the middle of the night never sent a bill in at all. Under Social Security I weekly pay away 2s in the pound of my wages for a medical service which could never be better than that which I formerly had free. —I am, etc., A.H. Hamilton, Oct. 10. EXTRA PAYMENT FOR CHEESE (To the Editor) Sir,—ln the course of a debate in the House of Representatives the other day the Minister of Agriculture referred to the additional payment of £7 a ton for cheese made by the British Government to both Australia and New Zealand. He said that because of the methods of control of the industry in Australia the Commonwealth Government had no option but to pay the additional sum direct to the producers. Tlie payment was not made to New Zealand, he contended, for the purpose of increasing the price of buttertat to the producer, but to recoup the industry generally and the Government for extra costs involved in the change from the manufacture of butter to cheese.

In other words, the Australian Government has not interfered in the industry as has been done in New Zealand; consequently the extra payment goes directly to the farmers. The Minister argues that the New Zealand Government has incurred heavy expenditure on behalf of the producers by the erection of further storage and in many other ways. Therefore the position in the Dominion is far more complicated and an equitable distribution of the extra payment more difficult.

It is desirable that all these factors should be carefully considered before the distribution is made. Because of this it will be some time before the committee and the department reach a decision, and before the farmers receive any compensation for the heavy expenditure which many of them have made in order to comply with the request for more cheese for Britain.

This does not dispose of the fact that | if the whole sum were distributed to the industry it would probably not meet the , whole cost involved. Producers have a i strong suspicion that the Government will : thoroughly safeguard its own costs posi- 1 tion and that the farmers will have to add i to costs which had already accumulated since the guaranteed price was fixed, j There can be no complaint against Britain receiving cheese at the most reasonable 1 price possible, but there certainly is room I for argument whether the Government ! should not bear a greater share of the j costs occasioned by a change of policy, j especially as the main objective is to produce the greatest possible quantity of : cheese. Is this one of our inevitable war- ! time sacrifices, or would it be good policy j on the part of the Government to en- j courage the fanners to increase production ? They are ready to make whatever ! sacrifices that are necessary to win the : war, but their ability to produce should I not be hampered. War or no war, the ! guaranteed price as it was originally in- I tended has practically ceased to exist.— i PRODUCER. Hamilton, Oct. 10. 1