EPIDEMIC FIGHTERS CONFER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 56, 30 November 1918, Page 12

EPIDEMIC FIGHTERS CONFER

FAID HELP TO BE CENTRALISED

APPALLING MOTOR EXPENSE ACCOUNTS TO BE INVESTIGATED BY SOCIAL COMMTIiE Practically every one of the health districts in Wellington ;>nd suburbs were represented at the meeting convened by the Mayor (Mr. J. i'. Lukej lor. noon yestEii'dav.

Mr. Luke, who occupied the chair, after congratulating those present wii the splendid organisation which had resulted in breatring domi t lie epidemic aud giving tlio people comfort and help in sickness, sr.id he desired to make a public statement* in reply to what the .vlinister of X'ublic Health had said afooul Wellington, which the usages of Parlinment bud prevented liim replying to on the floor of the House in dei-diice of Wellington. It,would very likely surprise everyone tD that during the war> period some 1-200 lioiises. had been erected, capable of accommodating t>ooo 'extra peopfc. a work which had been wried out though building material had been scarce and costly and labour in very short supply. In .respect to those houses all the conditions of the by-laws had been complied with, and, speaking for the City Council and Mr. Morton (the City Engineer), he could say that there had not been any .-lacknesa—just as strict a watch had been fcept'on the buildings as if normal conditions had prevailed. On the fact that 1200 houses had been erected during the war period he thought the city was to bo complimented. From week, to v.ee-k there might have been accumulations of dirt, and with great difficulty this had !oeen attended to. There was nothing wrong with the outsides—it was the insides of the houses that were far from sahslaciory, but in that regard the City Council did" not have the necessary authority to go inside . houses und clean them up. The best answer to that was that it I was identified with the duties of the Health Department, but yequired to be arranged on a more satisfactory basis-: than at present existed. At the last meeting he had said that the boverninent would provide an amount ot money to meet expenses in connection with the epidemic campaign, but there was a feclinsj abroad thai: such money should be suppltmcnled by funds subscribed by the public. Donations had been received and they had proved very valuivblc, but he had not made an appeal because he did not think it nreper to do so:. He thought that a Gffyermirciit which 'coul'i send J310,000 to relieve the people .of Halifax (after' the explosion and fire) should do something to relieve Us-own. people. He paid a tribute to .the whole-souled devotion of the women who had worked day and night through the trouble, and returned sincere thanks for the valuable work done by the male workers.

Cost of Motor-cars. ) Co'nlimiiii", Mr. Luke commented on the enormous cost of motor-rare. In (jhristehurch the motor trade had been jirganWed and the cars had rolled round the men giving practically the whole ot their sen-ices free. The conations wero different heVc. Somo -of the districts were very hilly and thero had been somo holding buck on the part ot motor-car owners, h'o.ne cars had teen smw e up-liie'oivn had been-and other- had been smashed up ,in other districts, and they had-had to Hind-other cars. lhi» had made the account for motor-car* uvery considerable indeed. There was alll > account of.JSWtbr benzine. . Jhe amount subscribed was .£1177 -la.-ld.; accounts mid .mounted Id -WlO Ms. bil.i accounts in hand were ,I*4B, 'curing a »»»»«,«/ .P. 218 7s. 6d. One charge was foi telegrams, as he had taken Iho precaution to advise the mat-of-kin of al who died, whether they were in New Zealand or be- ■ vend our shores.. He would thai a-finance committee be'appointed, to go into the accounts with him, and eumested representatives from Arlington North, South, East, aud Central, and one. from tho suburbs. Ho thought, too, that the time had arrived when they could narrow down the'work of the'groups. Though it would bo a good thing to concentrate he did not. propose to dissolve the committees until I Hint step, became absolutely necessary. ■ . , On the Eastern Side. Mr \ Walker,, a delegate from Eastbouriiei reported that they had vcmvoj instructions from the Chief Health Officer that their accounts muse go through His Worship's hands, whose signature would suffice. They had not incurred any expenditure that was not absolutely necessary. They had established a hospital in'the school, and had three nurses. They had 00 cases outside.the hospital.

That Blessed Word "Demobilisation." Mr R, H. Stickney (Wellington Central) considered that the time was about ripe for the committees to demobilise, disband the depots, and centralise at the Town Hall. As they could not get voluntary* cars in Central they had to hire taxis to do the work. Up till Wednesday they had attended to 1459 individual cases, and it meant quite a number of visits to each case-ami that number did not include every case in the district. He thought.that the sanitary inspectors •could now be dispensed with, und also the half-dozen paid workers^.

A Heavy District, • <* The lie'v. S. HobcrtsoniOrr (Wellington North) said'quite frankly that he had regarded expense as a secondary thing, and when they could not get voluntary cars he had" engaged any other car that was offering. They had in Wellington North handled 3019 cases, kept a complete record of'all cases, whether they died, wero still in hospital, or were convalescent. Speed was essential, and ho Iml had no time lo get on to an economic basis If the cost for 'motor hire was less than .£SOO he would be much surprised In addition to working day and liWit, they had to see to the transport of'Bo'nurses lo and from the iNormnl School and Sydney Street Hospital, so they had no time to look around tor cars. Owing to the slackening off in the work they were thinking of closing down on Saturday night, but since - kelburn had closed down, they had had to attend to some serious cases in that district. Thcv also had a voluntary convalescent iionie on The Terrace, and they were doing a certain amount ot relief work. On the suggestion of Mr. Wm. loster, f'olortel Vnliniino (Chief Health Officer) was asked to advise on the question ot the demobilisation of the groups. : Colonel (Dr.) Valintine said he was somewhat, handicapped having only recently resumed his ordinary work with the Public Health Department and he was just picking up the threads ot the oi'»iinisiiti<m. Personally, he though they might now concentrate more, and have one central organisation, but on that point ho would like to 'hear expression of opinion from those present. He thought they should now have the muses' centralised. If they had a centre thev could economise with the protessional staff, and. still have the services of voluntary workers. _ Mr. G. r'rost (Brooklyn) raised a point about the cost for motor repairs, and protested that ths closing down of their ■fvoup centre would provii a lumlsnin to 'he community, at-present, as they could nut send to the Town Hall tor the requisites the sick might require Colonel Valintine said he would not advise the disbanduieiit of the committees , in the more remote districts. llr Frost snirl that the question ot sanitation certainly warned dealing with. j The council m-eded greater powers,-to be i used underlie direction of. a medical ! The chairman 'explained tljat no one I wanted the organisations abolished, but 1 if the motor-e«rs wore brought together at one central place instead ot scattered over eighteen points, it would make tor efficiency, and delays vculd not occur.

I ■ Charge of Imposition. }lr T Gray aarceJ with the proposal to'ceiilralise. They were now getting to that singe when things were iast bocomI ing normal. Tic thought a good deal ot i imposition was going on. There were I'iimilies they knew who had got sup•ilies und help when a brother or a iather was at work. In such cases it

w.is the duty of the brother or father to look after his sick, and not leave it- to volunteers. (Hear,, hear.) In Kelburn all the cars had been given voluntarily— there had only been vhu wear and tear on thorn to account for. ■ His committee had passed a, resiiution 'o the effect that it did not proposo to disband until nil the soldiers were demobilised, and that in the meantime Ihe voluntary helpers would keep on going round, and would report to the ally cases which required attention. llr. Gray expressed himself ns surprised at. tlio enormous expenditure which had hoefi incurred for motor-cars.

Mr. J. J. M'Grath (Roseneath) said that in appointing the finance committee suggested ho hoped that they would set practical business men win understood motor-wys, an<l who personally |nVHStißatc the accounts. Tn his district all the cars bad been loaned voluntarily, and as all knew itosenealh was the worst district in Welii union—cars were on the low or second gear all the time. He thought they had also supplied the whole of the beuz'ne. used, and bafotid the i'2s the Mayor had cent along they had incurred 'no e>:pen-:o at all. Again lie emphasised the necessity of having the motor-car ncinuiils fully investigated. llr. D. M. Poison (Northland) said he honed -'clk-v-would exclude Northland •from the "centralising scheme. They could not hope to close down tor some days, as they still had several serious cases to attend to. • Wadestowii's Good Raccrd. Jfr. George ST. Nathan said that the Wariestown depot was being closed down for lack of business, but they had arranged amongst themselves to do any work tint was necessity. Their total expenditure was ,£ls, uiid they had never .had to hire a car/ ilr. H. Tolan: Does tjiat include advertising? ' Mr Nathan: Yes; everything. Continuing, Mr. Natfcan said that after paying accounts tliey might, have p. balance, which Wsuld be reserved for any cases of distress. ' • , , "~" Adding Eyes to City Staff. The City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton) congratalnted the group captains on the good work the 'sanitary inspectors had done. They were' tdded eyes to the staff of the' corpornt : on, and having a good organisation, had found out a lot of thing; , , among them dirt in people's houses. --Those sanitary inspectors were voluntary inci; those who had worked under t'lem were paid. ilr. Foster said he would.still like to know whether they were to demobilise or not. , The. Mayor did not think they should demobilise, but rather concentrate in order to eliminate expense. The motor expenditure was appalling.. Mr. H. A. Parkinson (Newtown) thought they, might concentrate as far as tlin cuoking was concerned—do it in a wholesale way instead of in a retail wav. Mr. Luke reminded the meeting that they were only concerned with influenza patients, not'with charitable .aid work. • Colonel Yalintine was of opinion that they should centralise, except in such cases as Brooklyn, Northland, ■ Seatoun, etc., Tmt he did not think the committees should disband or lose, touch. Mr. Tiqinitree (Sentoun) sliid that at Mirainar no expense had been incurred save that for benzine. Mr. Foster -said that if it meant the bringing of all their women helpers to the Town Hall, he would prefer to remain oiit of it. The assembling of hundreds of women there would mean confusion worse confounded.

It was sujjOTsted Hint if half a dozen ■frained nurses were kept at the' Town Hull Hie district helpers could go on attending to the convalescents and reporting cases in the usual way. Where Discrimination Should be Made. Mr, Thomas F-orsyth said that' discrimination should- be made between voluntary helpers and. paid workers. Concentrate the paid workers by all means, he miid, "but w/hy cut off tho supply of Toliiijtary helpers and voluntary cars —which wore costing nothing—which would still be an nctive vigilance organisation in each district at n cost of nest to nothing? '■ .Mr. Foster said lie did not know whether his ten faithful voluntary helpers who had done such splendid work would bo satisfied to sit down and wait for a job. ■ The Mayor: Don't dissolve—suspend gction! .•■■•' Mr. P. C. Watt (Berhampore) said he was at a'loss to understand how all the expenditure fi.ad occurred. His district, was a pnor one, .but u-p to the present they had incurred no expenditure, and would probably have a balance (of money donated) to hand over. (Applause.) Finally, on tiie motion of Mr. Charles Odlin (Island Bay), it was decided to concentrate all the paid cars and nurses-at the Town .{Lill. The Finance Committee. Regarding the Finance Committee, it was decided that/Wellington Worth , , Central, East and South should nominate a member at an early- date, and that Mr, S.'George Nathan should represent tho suburban districts. . . Financial Assistance Mr. Thomas Forsyth (Wellington 'kist) raised the question of financial assistance for the needy' through influenza. Would it; not. bo advisable to piace a certain sum of money at the disposal of each committee for the purpose? He had heard of Central getting ,£IOO and Roseneath M'i, but none had been given to Wellington East. , The. Mayor: You haven't asked for it. The money is available. ■ < *$■ Mr. Forsyth: Is that all you have to do ? > The Mayor: That's all. . x At the conclusion of the meeting the Mayor referred to the problem of the children, • mentioning that there were boons of them to deal with.' Mr. 'Jl'Grath: Isn't that a matter for 'the Education Department?. The Mayor: Yes, later on, perhaps; you know the Act. In the meantime we are doing what we can for them at. Kelburn and Miramar.