COST OF HOSPITALS

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 126, 30 May 1919, Page 10

COST OF HOSPITALS

DISCUSSION AT CITY COUNCIL.

It was recommended to the City Council at its meeting last night by the Finance and Property Committee that the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board's levy on the council for 1919-20, which amounts to £28,242, be authorised to be pa-id. ■

The Mayor said the amount was a considerable increase, which was regretted, but nothing would be gained by raising an objection. 'Also they should not put obstacles in the road of another body in carrying on its operations.

Councillor E, A. Wright, M.P., drew attention to the enormous increase which had taken place in the levy.- There seemed to be no end to it; but he thought the board should carefully revise its whole system of expenditure, which imposed a heavy burden on the people as a body. Councillor Glover, as a member of the board, said that that body was watching the expenditure Very carefully. Naturally, expenditure increased as the years went by, if they were going to have an up-to-date hospital. Councillor Norwood urged that all hospitals should keep , their accounts exactly on the same system, for pur-, poses of comparison, but the point was that the persons administering the fund were not directly responsible to the people who elected them. Only by some such means could hospital expenditure be put on a proper footing. Councillor. Frost urged that the matter was one that should be referred to tho Municipal Conference for consideration.

The Mayor said he thought the solution of the difficulty would be the merging of the Wellington local bodies and giving the newly constructed body the control of hospital and. charitable aid. The recommendation was adopted.