The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1889. New Charitable Aid and Hospital Bill

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 12, 13 July 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1889. New Charitable Aid and Hospital Bill

We give Dr Mo3regor credit for a plucky step in advance as exhibited in his Charitable Aid and Hospital Bill, and it is a matter of regret that the Cabinet, or the Minister in charge of the measure, did not take the Charitable Aid Boards a little into their confidence, when the scheme could have been made acceptable instead of, as now, awaking a storm of dissentient; motions all around the country. The most objectionable feature is that the contributing bodies are not represented on the controlling council, and that is so opposed to all English ideas as to evoke general indignation. The Bill proposes to sep arate Hospital from Charitable Aid administration, to separate chronic and old age cases from Hospital patients, to enable vagabonds and drunkards to be compulsorily taken charge of by the State, and to stop all outdoor Charitable Aid expenditure by the State. Now all these movements, except the last, are admirable, and the last would be good if it was feasible, without oppressive in j ustice. We may be asked where the injustice is and where the oppression, and our answer will be plain. Within the last twelve months New Zealand has been saddled with three hundred thousand pounds extia Customs duties, and while the inhabitants are struggling to regulate their living and expenditure to meet that burden, the proposed Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill attempts to save the Grovernmeut over forty thousand more, and compel us to extract and expend it out of rates. Had it not been for this cool piece of audacity the Bill might e-i* ily have been amended in committee, but now, with almost one accord, people cry, ', We'll none of it." It is true the Premier has said the Government are not desirous of hurrying the progress of the measure, and will give local bodies reasonable time for its consideration, but it appears to us that this is only a change of front, resulting from the loudly declared opposition of the parties interested.