The Sun SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1928. THE COST OF DISEASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1928. THE COST OF DISEASE

IT lias been reported that members of the Auckland City Council raised their hands in anguish over the Hospital Board’s ruthless demand for a contribution of more than £>53,000 toward the cost of disease and charitable relief in this community. This levy, only one of a multitude of calls upon municipal bodies for the same purposes, represents an increase of approximately £14,000 on the council’s enforced contribution last year. It is not at all surprising that local administrators make strident protest against the imposition. Most of the citizens, in a mood of pleasant chivalry, will be ready to sympathise with the City Council in its poignant vexation of spirit, but many of them, at the same time will feel like reminding councillors that they suffer the emotional temper which has been the common experience of ratepayers under the councdl’s extravagance. And even if there be a little malice in the ratepayers’ laughter at a municipal suggestion that the finances of the Hospital Board should be investigated, that may be pardoned in the circumstances. The cost of commissions threatens' to become as burdensome as the cost of disease. Since the epidemic of investigation has taken so hard a grip on Auckland one of two things might be done; either to appoint a permanent commission of inquiry with ample power to change legal counsel, so that all members of a penetrating profession might share in the harvest of costs on the highest scale, or arrange for the Hospital Board to investigate municipal expenditure while the City Council investigates the alleged extravagance of the board. This would at least add to the gaiety of the community, and perhaps the State, if it had any money left after making up losses on the railways and so on, might be induced to pay all expenses. Still, tlie cost of disease and charitable relief is much too serious for levity. Unfortunately, the expenditure keeps on rising instead of decreasing with the vaunted advance of medical science and all the other progressive wonders of civilisation. Though the. “New York Times” ecstatically lias praised New Zealanders for their ability to pienic neatly, it seems that they are not yet able \to picnic healthily. Admissions to the public hospitals now total 70,000 a year, and even at that amazing aggregate, thousands of sick persons cannot obtain hospital treatment. The demand for treatment is so great in Auckland that patients are glad to be accommodated in the corridors of the general hospital. Then, hospital administrators apparently, cannot sleep o’ nights for imagining l vividly the hapless plight of the community if it were stricken with a serious epidemic. It is a lamentable story, now told poignantly because a poor tale supports the board’s policy of expansion. When all h.as been said and done the burden of expenditure will fall upon tl te overloaded ratepayer. Since he will be told soon or later by politicians that things are a great deal worse in Great Britain upon whose experiences New Zealand models its politics, he may lloarn something now about British rates. In the ■259 towns of Groat Britain, there are only 17 in which the rates are under 10/- in the £. In a dozen cities and towns the rates are 20/- in the £ and upward; in 73 towns they exceed 15/-, but are under 20/-. The effect of these rates on industry have been appalling. A colliery company which, for example, paid £9,600 a year before the 'war now pays £68,000. As for the treatment of disease the payments under national health insurance atone now total £17,500,000 a year. That does not include the expenditure by friendly societies, trade unions, and private hospital patients. What may be done about reducing the incidence of disease? Medical experts in England assert that a great deal of had health can be attributed to sheer laziness. People refuse to walk so long as easy transport is within hailing distance. It is all very well to advocate w alking, but would pedestrianism prove economical? Many pedestrians who seek health on their feet are bashed by motor-wars into hospital. Indeed, motor accidents have created a new problem for public hospitals. Quite obviously, it is a mad world.