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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3557, 2 December 1882, Page 2

At the Hospital Committee meeting yesterday afternoon Mr C. B. Winter, speaking on the subject of hospital maintenance, is reported to have said that "it was evident the policy of the Government in the matter was to get all they could out of the local bodies and then make good any deficiency. Where they could give only £1 for £1 they would do so; where that would not suffice they would give £_ for £1; and in other cases, where nothing could be got, they would give the whole cost of maintenance. He then read what the Treasurer had said on the subject in his Financial Statement. " The Government," said Major Atkinson, "propose, pending further consideration of this subject, to take the whole cost of hospitals upon the Consolidated Fund, and for this purpose I shall have to aek for a vote of £70,000 for their maintenance. Well, that'sum was voted; and £20,000 besides for charitable aid, and it was not likely that the public would put their hands in their pockets to pay for what Parliament had already voted the money. The injustice of the matter would be this —that the districts which contributed towards tbe maintenance of their hospitals were at the same time being taxed to pay for the maintenance of hospitals in other places."