The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, MAY 20 1915. HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 212, 20 May 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, MAY 20 1915. HOSPITAL EXPENDITURE

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Wahnarino Newa.)

\The Wanganui Hospital and Charitable Aid Board’s levy on local bodies has again come under notice. It has been discussed by the Wanganui Borough Council, which body has supplied the public with a little more information, but not all we should have been glad to learn, or what contributors have a right to know, or, indeed, all that is necessary to review the balance-sheet issued by the Board to an intelligent conclusion. We know that there is a debit of some seventeen hundred pounds; now we learn from the Wanganui Borough Council ■ that the Board’s estimates show- j ed £IOOO for the erection of new j buildings, at a place called Gon-1 ville, and then there is the very ) significant parapraph in the Med-1 , ical Officer’s Report, which says, j * i c m\. i . ' 1 ■* ■

cal stage in its develoment; during the year its capacity, •in several departments, has been taxed, and many improvements and additions to buildings are urgently needed.” Taxpayers to the contributing bodies ought to know whether the estimates provide for. any additional buildings as outlined in this paragraph; for we maintain that the peculiar powers possessed by the Board for obtaining revenue make it incumbent upon them to consult local bodies before attempting any extraordinary capital expenditure, such as they are obviously now doing. If the Board’s income came from the national exchequer, Government would exercise a paternal oversight of their, demands, and because local bodies have to find the money there should be much keener, and a more critical desire displayed to ensure that useless or showy expenditure does not take place. The Mayor of Wanganui voiced the opinion this journal has already expressed. He said it would be a pity to sink more money in capital charges. If it is not advisable to permit addition to capital charges in Wanganui, it is a hundred-fold more so, from this far-removed part of the district’s point of view. .We are heavily enough taxed in these newly planted settlements to provide those conveniences that public health demands without having to contribute large sums for the erection of unnecessary buildings in Wanganui. We have already pointed out that the Board’s capital expenditure in 1914 was no, less than £1,823, and in addition there was an outlay on buildings and grounds of over £7OO, We think every sane person will agree that this £2,000 is something that should arouse suspicthat a similar sura, or considerably more, is asked for this year. What necessity for expending such a sum year after .year can the Board find? The Wanganui Borough Council says the expenditure is not warranted, and we say unhesitatingly that if the Board was an ordinary rating body, instead of being in the envious position of spending other peoples’ money, ratepayers would keep such a tight rein on their shopping proclivities as to prevent anything of the kind being proposed even. The assessments this year arc altogether disproportionate with those of 1914—in fact, they more than double the income from contributing bodies. In 1914 the total amount was £3,574; this year, although the actual figures are not before us, we have no hesitation in saying it will exceed £7,000 by some hundreds. The increase is unreasonable, and as, in all probability, contributing bodies will be pestered for larger amounts year afteryear, it behoves them, in their own interests to secure more dierect control of the spending of their money; and to insure greater facilities and conveniences to territory that is too far from the present hospital centre, some steps should be taken towards forming a now hosiptal district.