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Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1920, Page 2

The conference of representatives of Charitable Aid Hoards which opens at Wellington to-day will have before it the revived proposal from the Borough Council of iaiwrence expressing the opinion that the present system of levying on local bodies for hospital and charitable aid purposes was inadequate, andtuuduly taxed the holders of town properties, and suggesting that the Government be urged to amend the Act in the direction of making the cost of such institutions a charge on the Consolidated Fund. This is not a new idea, for it has been put forward from time to time ever since the present system of raising money by levy on local bodies was first brought into effect. Tlie primary objection to - the levy on the local bodies was that money raised for roads and bridges was being diverted to hospital and charitable aid administration. Then came the objection on behalf of tlie ratepayers—that only property holders were being taxed, and they were mainly the non-users of hospitals, and certainly not applicants for charitable aid. Besides there were many people of wealth not covered by property who /escaped the special taxation, and so for a long time there has been a persistent demand for a change and tlie desire to see the whole cost of administration for both hospitals and charitable aid—likfe education—charged entirely against the general funds of the Dominion, and not as at present a material portion charged against local taxes which are, or should be for the benefit of local development. The Hon C. J. Barr is the new Minister for Public Health and lie lias been sounded already on the | important question of hospital and charitable aid administration. In the course of some recent remarks at Auckland, Mr Parr said lie had received numerous suggestions that tlie whole cost of hospitals and charitable aid should be paid out of the Con. solidated Fund. The first essential in connection with the administration ol the institutions where unfortunate people were tended was efficiency. Whether the State could handle matters better than the present system of contributions from local bodies was a large question. As soon as lie could get tlie burden of Education—his other portfo- . lio—a little easier lie proposed to give the matter of hospital administration careful and impartial consideration. He confessed that hospital board work was new to him. In. considering the mat. ter of hospitals and their administration the Minister must do his best for the people. A matter which would have to lie considered, and it might weigh with the Finance Minster, was that the Dominion might be approaching a time of a. little stringency—he would not say more than that. That question would . have to be considered in any State system of control of,the hospitals, that was to say of the State providing the whole of the finance, because even if it did there might possibly be still some form of local control. The boards collected close on £500,000 a year from the local ratepayers, and any scheme for the Government meeting the whole cost of the hospitals and similar institutions would have to provide lor the raising of that half million of money out of the Consolidated Fund. The Minister said he simply called attention to the fact the matfer was a practical issue of importance that ho had to face. It could be quite understod that it was “not all beer and skittles” being Minister for Public Health. Mr Parr added that while he must give full weight to the claims of the various institutions in the J Dominion, he would always look to. , wards the hospital of his own (town with , kindly sympathy and interest. Mr Parr’s closing sentence was typically “Auckland” in its leanings, but apart from that it is clear that the whole question of hospital and charitable aid administration cannot be dealt with in an off-hand manner. The Government get the benefit of a half a million now . from local bodies, and that sum if lost j from one hand, will have to be made J up on the other. An adjustment has , „ot to 'he made if a change j f B to be brought about, and just, how the adjustment will work out it is difficult to say. No doubt at the Conference sitting now the 'subject will be well thrashed out, but the final decision rests with the Government not particularly prone to a change at this juncture. I