CORRESPONDENCE. DISTRICT HOSPITALS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4767, 22 October 1924, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

DISTRICT HOSPITALS.

(To the Editor.] Sir,—Through the columns of your va'uable local paper permit me to express my amazement at seeing in your issue of the ,15th inst. a resolution, proposed and seconded by the chairman of the County Council and our riding representative, Cr. Nicholson, respectively, asking the Thames Hospital Board to prevent any more hospitals being erected. Surely Cr. Nicholson is aware of the fact that the residents of Kerepeehi subscribe:! approximately £l5O towards the purchase of the Kerepeehi site for the purpose of erecting a maternity hospital thereon, and that the Minister for Health has subsidised the amount, and further, that the Director-General of Health in his letter to me advising the granting of this subsidy plainly pointed out the course the Thames board should pursue to meet the needs of the Plains and his readiness to grant the necessary assistance ? For two years Kerepeehi residents have been striving to reach this goal. The Plains people are tired of being forced elsewhere to obtain the comforts and facilities modern times offer. Too Img have the country people paid over their rates and taxes to erect modern conveniences, good roads, and clean footpaths in town. We believe these essentials. to living should be erected right here in our midst, where the greatest need exists. We obiect to expectant mothers being at the mercy of tidal rivers and' outrageous strips of so-called road, ir seems illogical to us that we should pay rates and taxes. to erect these conveniences and place them where, for us to use them, we have to incur further expense by way of travelling expenses, etc. More particularly is it necessary that a maternity home should be erected here on the Plains, in order that the farmers with their limited leisure and more limited means should find it possible foi themselves to visit it when occasion needs the mothers to be away flroi.i home. The most representative meetings ever held here have Been in furtherance of the expected maternity hospital at Kerepeehi, and I do not hesitate to say that the riding member for Kerepeehi te not voicing the opinions of the ratepayers here in seconding the resolution concerning hospitals. I believe the contention of the councillors that other hospitals would be further burdens is not correct. Every expectant mother who is sent away to either Thames or Paeroa on so uncertain a mission regarding time incurs unnecessary additional expense which will be avoided with a hospital right here in a central position, in the very near future fifty more families wifi be in residence at Kerepeehi, and hospital care and attention will be needed. Do not stand in the way o£ them getting it, nor' put them to the expense of journeying to Thames or Paeroa for it. They can have it here if you wifi help, and not hinder, the worthy efforts of residents to obtain what we are rightly entitled to—and what we shall not be satisfied without. WALLACE BOOTH, Hon. Sec. Hospital Site Fund,

ItOADLAG ESTIMATES.

Sir,—At the last meeting of the Hauraki Plains County Council Cr, Mc,Loughlin attempted to attribute the discrepancies in the estimates on oj.fr various loading schemes to the fact that Mr Higgins, the late engineer, based his estimates on a 12ft road, and that Mr Basham’s calculations were based on an 18ft road. Now, the cold, hard facts are those: Only on one portion of the work does this argument hold good, and that is on that piece of road extending from the Ngatea bridge to the Kerepeehi riding boundary, a distance of approximately four miles, which has been declared a main highway; the rest of the Horahia. riding loan scheme is un-altered,-yet the job is underestimated by approximately £9OOO. Further, I should like to know how Cr. McLoughlin is going to explain the following items: Ngataipua Road —Mr Higgins’ estimate was £6OO, and the work has already cost over £BOO, and is still unfinished, and no alteration to the specifications. On the Turua-Orongo Road, Mr Higgins’ estimate is over £lOOO too low according to Mr Basham’s estimate, the specifications remaining the same. On the Turua Town Board work Mr Higgins’ estimate was £2OOO below the lowest tender received ; also on the Turua southern area loan, which is well bn the way to completion, Mr Higgins’ estimate was £19,500, but on the actual working figures this undertaking is going to cost £24,000 ; likewise these-specifications have not been altered.

Again, at a meeting of ratepayers at Netherton some 18 months ago Mr Higgins, in reply to a question, told the meeting that he estimated landing Hikutaia metal on the bank at Netherton at 9s 6<l or 10s a, yard. The actual cost of metal landed at Carter’s Corner (which is much nearer to the Hikutaia quarry than Netherton) was 16s Bd, and not a good sample at that. Now, this sort of engineering may possibly suit Cr. McLoughlin and the ratepayers he represents—seeing that they have raised no loan monies and therefore are not paying the piper--but what of those ratepayers in the Horahia, Turua, and Kopuarahi ridings who have committed themselves to the utmost limit of their resources to get decent roads, only to find themselves “in the soup” owing to the lack of correct information ? Surely, at the price we were paying for our engineering services we were entitled to better results.

in this letter I have only dealt witn facts as I have mound them in my own particular area, and have not intruded on the western side of the Hauraki Plains County Council. Cr. McLoughlin has endeavoured to throw dust in the eyes of our ratepayers;

what his object is goodness only kii'iws ’ But in fairness to our overburdened ratepayers the searchlights should be turned on now and again. _ That is my object in forwarding these facts as I have found .them in my sibly deal with the affairs of the western side of our county. W. MADGWICK. Turua.