Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1892. The Palmerston Hospital.

Manawatu Herald, 16 August 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1892. The Palmerston Hospital.

We very much regret the friction that exists between the Palraerston Hospital Board and the Palraerston Borough Council, and can only counsel a speedy and amicable adjustment of their differencies if they desire to see their hospital supported by the outside districts. -We certainly understood from the published reports of the earlier meetings the Borough Council were willing to hand over to the Board the proceeds of those portions of the reserves sold and all the unsold land. It appears now that the Borough, for some reason not made clear, desire to hold all the reserves, except that particular piece of land upon which the hospital is to be erected, and to hand over the receipts from the sales from time to time, to the Board. The Mayor of the Borough now deolares that the reserves are gifts from the Borough and they are not bound to hand them over to the Palmerston hospital. To enable the reserves to be handed over to the Hospital Board an Act of Parliament is necessary, and after many discussions between the two bodies it was decided to leave the Bill to be drawn up to the satisfaction of the solicitors employed on either side. This Bill was drawn up, and signed by Mr Jellicoe for the Board and by Mr Stafford for the Borough, and instead of the. Council adhering to their undertaking to abide by this arrangement, they repudiate, and desire a new clause leaving the land still in the hands of the Council. The Board at its meeting on Thursday decided " That the Board regret it cannot consent to any alteration in the Bill now before them re the Hospital Reserves, as the whole matter was by resolution left to the solicitors, and the matter should end here, and further the whole business has been already left to the Chairman and a member of the Board." We understand the Mayor of Palmerston feels so strongly that he has publicly expressed his intention of forcing the Act through the House with the additional clause, in defiance of the Board and the arrangement previously arrived at. Such action tends to strengthen the support the Board is likely to receive for the decision they arrived at, as it seems absurd on the part of the Borough Council to suggest the Board are not capable of managing the reserves, thus making it imperative that the Borough should sell and then hand the cash received over. It certainly shows contempt for the members of the Board and also place3 them in a false position, as the Borough need only sell how and when they pleased and the Board would be helpless. The generosity so loudly sounded before the Palmerston Hospital Act was passed seems dwindling down to a grudging niggardness, and unless better councils prevail the Hospital at Palmerston will be only a monument of the " great cry but little wool" of the Palmerston Borough Council.