PUBLIC HEALTH
WHOSE THE RESPONSIBILITY
STATE OR LOCAL BODIES ?
The Minister of Public Health has made a stntwucnt in reply to some opposition that hns been offered to his I'unlio Health Bill. The Minister sent round to the local bodies copies of the Bill, nnd about 70 local bodies approved of the Bill. The AYnitaki Hospital Board is opposing this Bill, and it hn9 sent out circulars all over the eountry urging opposition to it. Mr. Parr says that the circular of the AVnitaki Board, •diowa a total misunderstanding of the Bill, and of the' principles of locnl government The Wattaki Board, ho Bays, asks that the Public Health Department shall tnko over control of all local health concerns, but to intorpret this proposal filerally this must mean that Tiie Department is to take control of drainage, sewerage, awl water supply. The Minister expresses the opinion that it cannot l>e left to the local bodies to deal with such matters as sewerage and I water supply, while the Government, deals with jill the rest of sanitary work of file neigiiuourhood. It was obvious, he Mid, that tho work could not be divided in halves, 60 that all the disagreeable work should ho done by the Government, while at the same time the local bodv was to keep control of such essential orcveutivo services as refuse and nightsoil removal and sewerage. The Department could not subscribe to tho new doctrine that the Department must accept nil responsibility for public health, and that, the lucal authority is to take no responsibility for preventive sanitary measures.
"Further," said Mr. Parr, "'if the cost of local sanitation is to be borne by tho Consolidated Fund, as suggested, it would mean an increase in general taxation, vhich would fall unfairly on country districts, where the need for sanitation services is very much less than in tho towns. The •Department will, of course, assist any weak local authority to carry out its sanitary functions; the Public Health Bill makes provision for such assistance. No new burden is laid on tiie local authorities. The whole responsibility for local hygienic conditions has always rested on the local authority. "It is true that since 1912 sanitary services have been taken from the local authorities and placed with tho Hospital Boards, the ocst of the work being borne by the local authorities through, the hospital boards' levies. The hospital boards, however, have failed to carry out these duties properly, and their intervention has only resulted in confusion, as was shown in the epidemic of 1918. Tho Bill will pro-vide a more satisfactory and less confused system; and it adds no fresh burden of cost to local bodies."
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Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 4
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447PUBLIC HEALTH Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 289, 31 August 1920, Page 4
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