HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1306, 4 August 1886, Page 3

HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID.

' [From the Mail.] There will be great disappointment throughout this and other similarly situated districts at the refusal of the Government and the House to accede to proposals for autonomy in the matter of the administration of hospitals and charitable aid, and in the case of Ashburton that disappointment is intensified by the fact that our members were so near to the attainment of success. ! \Ve confess that we altogether fail to see any justification for the stand taken in this matter by the Premier, as if only the object of making the districts as large as possible be kept in view then it clearly follows that the boundaries of the districts should be coterminous with those of the provincial districts, or still better with those of each Island. When the original Act was introduced last year, the large districts proposed were avowedly intended to be the basis of a

local government scheme, the Goven ment indicating an intention to add I the powers and duties of the Boards t subsequently investing them wit authority over other matters and er trusting them with other functions tha those appertaining to the administr; tion of the Hospital Act. But thi scheme was wholly departed from b permitting numerous subdivisions c the districts as proposed to be made I and this being so, it is not just ;iha autonomy should be now refused ti other parts of the colony which an able to show good reasons for demand ing it. And if any district can shov good reasons, clearly the Ashburtor district can ; we have our own hospital and charitable institutions, and can administer them much more effectively on the spot than we can do as a partol a Board sitting at Christchurch fifty miles away', and we protest against the present state ol things as highly inconvenient and unnecessarily expensive. The whole case was very ably placed before the House by Mr Walker, and to the arguments adduced by that gentleman there was absolutely no reply other than the objection of the Government to separation. But with the whole of the Ministers, and necessarily a large proponion of the Ministerial party, against him, it is no wonder that Mr Walker failed of success ; indeed, the only wonder is that under the circumstances he so nearly attained it. We understand that it is in contemplation to petition the Legislative Council on the subject, and it will be well that this appeal should he - li ied as a last resource, though we fear that for the present session it will result in failure. If so, however, we must not be discouraged. Our case is a good one, and there is little doubt that a further amending Bill will be accessary next year, when another :ffort will be made, and will we hope )c crowned with success.