Dispute Over Leave For Political Candidate

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31116, 20 July 1966, Page 12

Dispute Over Leave For Political Candidate

(From Our Own Reporter) BLENHEIM, July 19. Mr G. A. Wall, deputysuperintendent of the Wairau Hospital, Blenheim, and Labour candidate for Marlborough

in the forthcoming General Election, suggested to the Marlborough Hospital Board that recommendations it adopted on leave for him were based on political rather than medical reasons.

Mr Wall, who is also a board member, was commenting on the board’s decision to grant him leave from seven days before the close of nominations to seven days after polling day.

The chairman of the board (Mr A. G. Wicks) said that he took strong exception to such a suggestion, which had never before been made in his 20 years of local body experience.

Mr Wall described the leave offered as "the legal minimum for civil servants plus one week, whieh gives a fair indication of how liberal the board has been in the matter." He said that the extension of leave beyond this minimum to allow him to conduct a campaign entirely depended on whether a substitute was found to replace him at the hospital while he was absent. Everyone knew that this possibility was extremely remote, because of the shortage of medical staff all over the country.

“It is so remote, in fact, that it does not enter into any intelligent consideration," Mr Wall said. “Furthermore,” Mr Wall continued, “in 1964, when the medical superintendent was given three months’ leave for an overseas trip the extra duty imposed on the remaining staff was considered to be so minor that the board did not even express any thanks, let alone appoint a replacement.”

Mr Wicks said he regretted that a member of the board should “stoop so low.” “If Mr Wt 11 forgets that his primary obligation is to the board, then I think he should hand in his resignation, Mr Wicks said. “He should realise that as an employee of this board he should take both the good and the bad. I know the committee has fallen over backwards to make this decision as favourable to Mr Wall as possible. "Politics have nothing to do with the decision. I had better not say any more, or I might express my views more forcibly. The allegation is entirely unfounded and unfair," Mr Wicks said. Mr Wall’s motion that the recommendations be referred back to the committee lapsed for want of a seconder.