OUTDOOR RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1932, Page 8

OUTDOOR RELIEF

TREMENDOUS PROBLEM

REQUEST BY HOSPITALS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A determined^ effort to persuade the Government to relievo hospital boards of the burden of outdoor relief in connection with the unemployed will bo made early this month, when a subcommittee of the executive of tho Hospital Boards' Association will wait upon tho Prime Minister, the Eight Hon. G. AY. Forbes, the Minister in Charge of Unemployment, the Eight Hon. J. G. Coates, and tho Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young.

"The work of -hospitals has been completely overshadowed by this constant nightmare of relieving the distress of unemployed," said Mr. W. Wallace, president of tho association, and chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, in making this announcement.

The ordinary functions of hospital boards have been relegated entirely to the background and a position has arisen which is simply intolerable.

"On New Year's Eve there were over 925 recipients of relief at Auckland, compared with the previous highest number of 475, dealt with in the depth of winter. The previous day there were over 1100 recipients, making a total of over 2000 in two days.

"We cannot possibly carry on at this pace," Mr. Wallace continued. "The Government is simply leaning back and doing nothing to meet the problem. x As far as the Auckland Hospital Board is concerned, we shall be faced with a problem when the financial year ends in March of deciding whether we are in a position to budget for unemployment outdoor relief "in future.

"The usual charitable aid work, of course, must continue, but it is my firm opinion that we should no longer continue to overburden ourselves with what is essentially a national problem, at tho expense of our hospital duties."

"With respect to the objection raised against the holding of the hospital boards' conference at Timaru in February on the ground of economy, Mr. Wallace said no one was less anxious to involve hospital boards in needless expense than himself, but if the boards could make their influence on tho outdoor relief question felt through the medium of the conference they would bo justified in holding it. Apart from the question of expense, bovjover, he was doubtful whether the executive was constitutionally entitled to postpone the conference. Conferences, he said, were held biennially, and were required to elect an executive. On account of the Hawkes Bay earthquake last year's conference was deferred, bo that if the conference was again postponed this year four years would have elapsed without an election.