The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1919. HOSPITAL GOVERNMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1919. HOSPITAL GOVERNMENT.

(With which ifl Incorporated The Tai* h&pe Po«t tad Walcmil-jo Naw«). i

The whole of the circumstances in connection; with the enquiry held at the Taihape Hospital last week, without taking into"consiSeration the culpability of any person or, persons, show clearly that the basis of all the trouble is that the Taihape Hospital cannot be effectively conducted by foreign government. Some tw r cnty-five or thirty years ago similar trouble arose in Masterton, and the government of that institution was removed from Wellington to Masterton,: where the institution is situated and the cause of friction vanished in a very short time. It has been stated that Taihape people cannot have the management of their own hospital because the Minister for Public Health strongly advocates increasing the size of districts. We do not know why the "Minister favours large districts, if he really does do so, but we do know that every advocate of large districts we have learned anything about has without exception based his convictions solely upon cheapness. It Is urged that centralisation of hospital government to one body in each Island would lessen the cost of administration very considerably. That contention may be a right one, and we ! believe that if the world were governed by one king there might be a great I saving in the cost of kings and kinglets if the supervision were sufficiently effective to remove all possibility of abuses, disagreements and jealousfes, but here is the weakness. There is the element of human nature to be removed; the independence, the inborn love of freedom? to be crushed and the spirit that revolts against interference to be tamed. When Germany wanted one king for the world the world objected, and if the Minister of Public Health

is really of "opinion that there should be one Hospital Board for the North Island and another for the South Island his hospital ideal will not he reached, either in his lifetime or thereafter. In earlier times when sparsencss of population made the" limits of counties and other districts much wider than they are to-day, when there were just about as faany settlers in a country as there are in a present day moderate sized road district they managed to agree. Their wants and differences of opinion were limited by the limit of their numbers; the whole could consult together upon any important policy or administration proposal, but as population grew and settlement rapidly increased those old counties were divided up into twos and threes. In fact there was a fight as to whether road districts were not preferable to counties as the boards were,in closer touch with those whose interests they represented. With the experience of the past there should be no shadow of doubt about the failure of unweildly sized local districts. If cheapness regardless of efficiency were the only consideration, a peacefully-disposed community north of Auckland might not mind being governed by a board in Invercargill, but cheapness is the very last consideration to claim attention; no article is cheap that is not good,' and a government that is ineffective and unsatisfactory is worse than valueless, it is a Curse as we have cause to regret. The Taihape district has no doubts about cheap foreign government regarding its hospital; a young life ebbs away without that attention hospitals are instituted to assure, and who cares? Who will take the measures necessary to prevent recurrence of such ah awfully depressing incident? The prime cause is not the individual, it is the government, the supervision provided one hundred miles away that 1 is absolutely and entirety ineffective bere. The management of any institution, public or private, is responsible for the acts of its servants when on duty, and if that is generally admitted it is the Hospital Board that is responsible for the awful scandal that has been discovered in our hospital. For the hospital staff there may be mitigating circumstances, but for the Govermnent that compels the Taihape Hospital to be governed from Wahgamil there arc none. In the development of public institutions it has been demonstrated beyond question that it is silly to expect satis'factory local government by the cheap big district scheme, and we shall be surprised to learn that the Hon. G. W. Russell is a supported of any such visionary system, ideas exploded long years ago. The Wanganui Board realises ifs"nclplessness; it is willing to do its best, but distance prevents necessary close view, observation and supervision, and its full powers it cannot

j delegate to any body nearer at band. ( The Board has a Taihape Executive, 1 but only one of that body resides in { Taihape. A proposal was made to the [ Borough Council providing for four of j its members joining the already unsatisfactory Executive] As we have said, I the Board is helpless, and to set up an ! entirely irresponsible body is nothing short of being a farce. We trust councillors will have sufficient dignity to resent being urged on to something that has no status under the law. Such a committee would be infinitely mo;t j ridiculous than a school committee. The j most sacred institutions we have are our i hosiptals; they control matters of life j and death of our fellows while all 1 other institutions arc concerned with j education and business. Then, are the | most sacred institutions to be conducted or governed by cheap, by irresponsible committees because they cost nothing, or shall we insist upon the only means available to secure that respect i and care for the lives and health of our unfortunate fellows that all human law. demands of us? For years this journal has advocated a separate hospital district, with a Hospital Board in Taihape. - Will people still remain diffident and care nothing about the institution they should above all have limitless concern fort It deals with the health and lives of their workmen, their brothers and sisters while others are only concerned about monetary affairs, roads and public conveniences. Are we mofo troubled about our own convenience than about the lives and health of the people of our district? Steps should be taken at once to petition the Minister for a separate hospital district and thereby secure the only effective management that our laws render available. Let Taihape remove this reproach in connection with its j hospital: the care of the sick have the i first claim upon " them. |