THE MACARTHY HOME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 109, 1 February 1919, Page 8

THE MACARTHY HOME

A WOBD TO TIIE RATEPAYERS. Sir,—As a ratepayer, may Ibe allowed lo comment on what you describe as an "interesting interview" with the chairman of the Hospital Board concerning t:ho Mncarthy Home? 'The iiitorvieic is certainly interesting as an illustration of the ineptitude of the board in dealing with this properly. The chairman says it was an experiment, and that ho believes it is the only children's convalescent 3iomo in the Dominion connected with a general hospital. He also tolls us that tlio charges are the same as at the Children's Hospital, but if the parents are unable to pay no claim is mado. Ho concludes that the monetary rctnrn"-from patients so far has been negligible. Tho board must have known from their experience of the Children's Hospital that little could 1)0 looked for in the way of fees from_ the convalescent homo. They had no similar, institution in New Zealand to guide them in the matter of probable receipts nnd expenses, and I question if any guidance was asked for from the Sydney and Melbourne homes referred to by Mr. Baldwin. Nevertheless, they blindly accepted the grant from the Mncarthy Trustees, mado 110 stipulation about an endowment, nnd proceeded to purchase a property far too big for an "experiment;" and much too expensive to keep up. There was a fiuo house on the ground, which I understand had cost .£ISOO, That was surely good enough for an "experiment." and I am certain that for a very small expenditure it could have been mado suitable for the I staff-and ten or twelve children. But no, this experimenting board, with no knowledge of tho require'iionts of a children s convalescent _ home, -must needs launch out into big. alterations and additions to tho house to provide for twenty children, and before they know where they wero the whole of tho original •Brant of .£6OOO was gone, and the additions and furnishing were not vet cornDieted. A nappeal to thq Mncarthy Trustees resulted in a further grant of .£IOOO, and. this was also spent, nnd now tho ratepayers have to carry on.this foolish experiment at a loss of. ,£BOO to £1000 yearly. Mr. Baldwin waxes e!oijuent on tho' beauties of tho site, but it seems to nio that its chief suitability in his eyes is its inaccessibility to tho parents. Trams and second-class train fares run into nearly L's., and how can poor people afford that? To get to tho home they have also a toilsome t'amp of nearly half an hour from Melling Station, so it is little wonder that this "ideal sito" is unpopular with mothers. As worked ljy Mr. Pinny this property was really a small farm and orchard on which ho usually kept two or three cows and a horse, both summer and winter, and they always looked sleek and well fed, but under Hospital Board management tho place is not even carrying one cow, and all tho milk for the liotrio has to bo bought! In the cow paddock in front of the home a good crop of hay is going to waste; tho board is apparently too tired to have it cut and sold,, and if hot, dry weather sets in it will become a source of danger from fire. I have set forth these instances of the board's unbusinesslike methods at some length in the hope that the ratepayers will tako warning in time, and not allow the board to saddlo them with tho proposed dniry farm. If the board's management of this farm is any criterion as to what will happen on a dairy farm, I enn only say that the ratepayers will bo sadly, neglecting their own interests at tho forthcoming elections if theyfnij to voto ngiinst any candidate who is in favour of tho. purchase of a dniry- farm by the board. —I am, etc., S.P.E. January 30, 1919.