HOSPITAL FINANCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1285, 14 November 1911, Page 3

HOSPITAL FINANCE.

- AN APPEAL. . . In connection with the forthcoming effort to raise funds for the Wellington Hospital,'the Rev. W. A. Evans, chairman of tho board, forwards a statement regarding the various avenues of income and expenditure. He stateS: _ , "The forthcoming concert in aid of the proposed improvements; at the Hospital promises to be' a brilliant success. Tho ladies who liavj so enthusiastically taken up the matter,, and have undertaken the sale of tickets, and other means of making the evening a memorable one for Wellington, are sanguine as regards the results. Not that they have found tho task they have undertaken an easy one; on the contrary, they , have met with many difficulties, difficulties that would tend to depress less devoted women, but realising tho importance of the end aimed at, they take courage and persevere. The most difficult opposition which the ladies have encountered arises from the contention that the Hospital is in no need of funds. It is provided in tho Hospitals ?ud Charitable Institutions Act that the board shall at tho beginning of every year prepare an estimate of tho requirements and tho amount necessary to meet such requirements shall lie raised by levies on the local bodies, within the jurisdiction of the board, the sums levied to be subsidised by the State on tho basis of .£ for ,£. Seeing that the State-lias made this provision, whv not carry it out, rather than trouble the individual - citizens for an additional amouut. In the second place, it is found, so it is affirmed, that tho Hospital is heavily endowed; that statement is somewhat ambiguous,-but it is true that tho Hospital, to a certain extent, is endowed. Ihe amount that is received from this source is about .£3200 per year. Now tho total expenditure incurred in running the hospital alone is about .£28,000 per annum. Of this amouut .£8772 is obtained from local bodies and carries with it an equal amount by waj of subsidy; this and tho amount of £3200 from, endowments form (ho principal sources of revenue. Tho fact of the board's power to raise whatever revenue it requires, both for capital expenditure and for maintenance is conceded; but whether tho board should depend solely on lho exercise of this power and dry up tho sources of private and public charity is another matter,-, and 1. submit is an arguable point, but leaving that aspect of tho question'for the moment, to argue lhat-bocau.se the board lias [tower of levying oil the local bodies, for the revenue it requires to carry on its institutions, therefore it.is wrong and vexatious to approach individuals in the interest of such • institutions is to say the least a serimis reflection on the public spirit, of our citizens. The amount.levied on the City Council for this year is ~£B9-13 165., that amount- is, of course, for hospital imil charitable aid. To meet this amount a rate of 2Jd. in the £ is struck on the. annual value. There are about S7OO ratepayers in the city, and by working out the amount of the hospital portion of tho rate, it will bo found to work out at about 13s. 9d. per head of tho ratepayers, or about 3d.' per week. 1 don't think that anyone would regard such a contribution towards the medical and surgical treatment of tho sick poor of the city a an adequate acknowledgment of the claims of the 'bonds of common citizenship. Technically tho objection to buying tickets for theconcert which is to bp given by the Orphans' Club for the benefit of the Hospital, may bo correct, and valid, from a purely legal point of view, but. a common citizenship appeals to a higher authority than that, of (he letter of the law. It. appeals to that humanity that shares in common, to tho strain and stress of life which a common humanity involves, and to (hat spirit of chivalary which has ever marked our Anglo-Saxon racc throughout its history."