JUST "MALINGERERS"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 6, 3 May 1939, Page 7

JUST "MALINGERERS"

O - MANY HOSPITAL PATIENTS COUNTY COUNCILLOR'S CHARGE RATE LEVY PROTEST The charge that many of the patients in the Wellington Public Hospital were malingerers, and that the dairy farmers were working double hours to _ keep them there, was made by Councillor J. F. Maher at a meet, ing of the Hutt County Council, when protesting against an increase of nearly £2500 in the county's share of the current 3 r ear's hospital levy. The Wellington Hospital Board wrote informing the council that its levy this year would be £8742 14s Bd. The amount last year was £6256 Us "This means that it will be necessary lor us to increase the rates on a percentage,'' said the acting chairman (Councillor F. W. Vickerman). Councillor Maher: But not without a kick. Councillor Vickerman: The kick can come after. "But the time has arrived when we should bring home to the ratepayers exactlj' what their hospital contribution is costing them,"' continued Coun cillor Vickerman. "The line on the rate notices dealing with the hospital rate should be printed in red. Last year we decreased the rates to make up for an increase of £800 in the hospital levy, but that cannot be done this time. This year we will receive complaints that our rates have increased, but that will not be so. It is the social rate that has been increased. "Hammered into the People" ~ "We have such a thing now as Social Security," said Councillor Mali, er. "It has been hammered into the people of this country during the last three and a half years that the cause of a lot of illness in the past has been fear of the future, nut enough recreation, too much work, and so on.. "We now have Social Security, recreation, and shorter hours. lam non.plussed to know why there is no limit to increases in the hospital levy I am speaking for my ratepayers, and they feel this very much. "One section of the community is working double hours —I am thinking particularly of the dairy farmers — for the privilege of paying this bos. pital levy to keep others, and 1 have been told by Hospital Board members of many cases of malingering in the public hospital because conditions there were so pleasant for them They have everything there to amuse them and are waited on hand and foot. "We have one section of the community with all the amenities and all the, amusements and another section keeping them. 1s there a limit to it? Everything is increasing and becoming a greater burden. We might just as well leave the Hutt County and send it along to the Hospital Board to administer." Gaol better than Trentham "These things are more or less re. lative," said Councillor Vickerman. "I heard the statement made the other day by a man who had done 14 days in the Mount Cook gaol that it was more comfortable than Trentham at the beginning of the war. "Many people are taken in ambulances and many people do go to hospital w r ho in your and my young days would have been ashamed of themselves. They would then have had a bit of sheeting or a dab of iodine put on and told to get on with their job.''* Mr Maher: If you have any property, this is an absolute mortgage on it. Mr Vickerman: We all live on or off the land. This letter from the Hospita,] Board should be received. I don't know what else we can do. You can pass any resolution you like. It won't make any difference. The letter was received. ABBREVIATION PUZZLE In the schedule of goods affected by the import restrictions the Utters "n.e.i." appear frequently. Their inclusion has been a source of puzzlement to many readers, and in an endeavour to arrive at an interpretation Pears Encyclopaedia and other works of reference were resorted to. Much speculation was rife, one seeker, in desperation, could only suggest the letters "n.e.i" stood for Nash's Engineering Imports." The initials actually stand for "Not else, where included,'' such headings providing for all goods of the type in question not mentioned under separate headings.