HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1271, 23 June 1886, Page 3

HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

[From the Mail.]

The Hospitals and Charitable Irstitutions Act Amendment Bill is now circulated, andisintended to provide for various matters which were overlooked in the original .Act, and to remove doubts as to various disputed points in connection with the working of that measure. An important clause is that which provides tor the maintenance of destitute children by enacting that every order made or to be made lor commitment of a child to an Industiial School shall be deemed to have been made within the hospital district wherein the order is made, and j the Board of the district is to be charged with the cost of the maintenance of the child or children so committed, and the Board may charge and recover such cost from the local authorities within its jurisdiction. The subsidy clause, section 15 of the principal Act, which fixed the rate of subsidy at ten shillings for every pound of bequests, and pound for pound upon all voluntary contributions and sums received from any local authority, is repealed, and in lieu thereof it is proposed to fix the subsidy as follows, vis : —Ten shillings for every pound of bequests, but in no case exceeding five hundred pounds in respect of any one bequest, and twenty-four shillings for every pound of contributions from any local authority, whether voluntary or raised by a general rate, but one pound for every pound only if raised by a special rate. This alter alien is ob viously intended to encourage voluntary subscriptions, and is one improvement upon the even rate of the principal. Section 58 of the Act of 1885 is also repealed, and a new section substituted, the difference being that in future money paid by a District Board to a separate institution will not be entitled to subsidy under the original provision, the same money being subsidise ble twice over from the Consolidated Fund. Clause 5 of the Bill is a very useful provision, enabling, as it does, the advance to any Board or trustees by the Colonial Treasurer, in anticipation of the estimated revenue for the year of not exceeding one half of the amount of such estimated revenue, exclusive of subsidies. The following clause sets at rest the disputed point as to expenses of management, and gives powerto allow the travelling expenses of members of a Board. It enacts that the Boards may pay such salaries and general expenses as are necessary to the due administration of the Act, and may pay the actual travelling expenses of members in attending meetings and making official visits of inspection when appointed so to do. Clause 7 directs that surplus funds at the end of any year are to be carried forward to the credit of the succeeding year ami applied in reduction of the amounts required to be collected for the expenses of the institution during such year. It is further veiy properly provided that in the case of institutions which have invested funds, such investments ate to remain undis-

Wewept the express permission Jovernor for the realisation be first obtained), and yearly proceeds only applied to the defrayment of cur rent expenses. It is henceforth to be obligatory upon Boards, not optional as heretofore, to divide their districts into subdivisions, and it declares what local authorities in each subdivision shall be liable to contribute to the sup port of the institutions therein, and to afford charitable aid, and to appoition the contributions to be made, and fix the time for payment. In future, existing institutions which may desire to become separate institutions will have to show’ a list of persons who undertake to contribute annually in sums of not less than five shillings each, and a total amount of not less than one hundred pounds. Persons who were life governors of any institutions prior to the passing of the principal Act are to be deemed life contributors, and as such may vote personally or by proxy, and hereafter donors of not less than twenty pounds may be elected life contributors. Every contributor is to have and may exercise but one vote in respect of pach trustee to be elected. Costs of appeal under sections 25 and 26 of the principal Act are to be defrayed by the losing party, and may be recovered as S debt due to the Crown, and may be deducted by the Colonial Treasurer from any subsidy payable to such party under the Act. The foregoing precis covers every point in the Bill, which is a very necessary one, and which will no doubt pass into law, with the addition, in all probability, of clauses constituting Ashburton and other counties, respectively, separate districts. At any rate, the effort to obtain this addition will, doubtless, be made, and wherever so good a case as that for Ashburton can be made cut we hope it will result in success.