HOSPITAL RATE REFUND REQUESTED

Chronicle (Levin), 21 June 1946, Page 6

HOSPITAL RATE REFUND REQUESTED

-» -Press Associatiori

By - Telegraph-

WANEA^Ll, June 19. A refund of excess payments by way of riites to tlie- Ho.spital Board is being sought by the Wanganui City Council, which cites as the basis of its claim Ihe repoirt to Parliament of the Select Committee on Lpcul Body. Governmeut. The.action follows the decision of three county councils in Ihe Wanganui district; — Kangitikei, Wanganui and Waitotara— to defer striking a' liosxfftal rate in protest against the increasingv incidence Of hospital taxation.

"That tlns council is alarmed at the i persistent ineiease in rating Jevy for hospital purposcs, and strouglv urges J the Government to adopt, without! delay, the reconunendations of the Local Government Committee, and,! further, that the council lodge an a[»- j plication for a refund ot' tho -excess j amounts as deiined in the conunittee 's i report," was the text of a motion | carried by the council tojiight. Tho j hiover, Councillor W. S. N. ltenuie, said 1 that the Select Committee" had recom- j mended tliat the Government should be j responsible for hospital rating over and j ,above a stabilised rate of, say, .7d in • the £ on rateable capital value, tlie amount to be found from the Con- i solidated ,Foni. H0" felt that" the coun- j cil would be justified in claiming a t refund of the amount paid in excess ot:"; the stabilised rate. Councillor J. C. Batt said it woulJ ! merely add more strain t'o the i Oonsolidated Fund. "I am in favour of the motion | because I think it will hasten a decision j .by tlie Government," said Councillor B. P. Andrews. .