Ratepayers Protest

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 58, 1 December 1937, Page 9

Ratepayers Protesi

-Press Association.)

NEW WELLINGTON HOSPITAL "Wantonly Extravagant Plans INDIGNATION MEETING

(By Telegraph-

W ELLiIN GTON, Nov. 29. An indignatiou meeting ealled by the Wellington Ratepayers ' Association to protest against the intention of the Wellington Hospital Board to raise a further loan of £159,250 for the purposeof carrying out its full re-building scheme "vvas held to-night in the Chamber of Commerce. The hall was paeked and members pf the audience were perched on the tablea piled along jthe side of the xoom1 almost to the roof, while at ,the start of the meeting maay were standing in the corridor unable even to gain admission. The following resolutions were carxied with only four dissentients: "Having in view the paramount heed of the patient and the most efScient manner in which to obtain that objective, this meeting of citizens i'eels justly • indignant at the wantonly extravagant proposal to enlarge the Wellington Hospital by 300 beds at a cost of £750,000 — or approximately £2500 per bed— whereas a new and up-to-date hospital thoroughly and fully tequipped could be built in the Hutt Valley at a cost of not. more than £500 per bed, and such a proposal, given efiect to, would be adequate for the nest ten years. "This meeting cajls upon the Wellington City Council as the majn contributor and representing ihe ratepayers of Wellington to appoint the Mayor and two members from its engineering staff together with two independent architects and representatives* of the contributing bodies to Investigate the possible cost of any needed improvements at the Wellington Sospital and report upon the proposal of a new hosital in the Hutt Yalley,'*