HOSPITAL BOARDS' CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1917, Page 4

HOSPITAL BOARDS' CONFERENCE.

REMITS CARRIED. MAINTENANCE OF INDIGENT CHILDREN. By Tt'egraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Tlie Hospital Boards Conference carried tlie following remits: That tlie time is now opportune for the adoption ol a classification scheme and uniform scale of salaries to the nursing stall's, and that the matter be referred to the Inspector-General. That it be a recommendation to the Government, to alter the Pensions Act to" provide that where old-age pensions are misused so as tc become forfeited, a stipendiary magistrate may have power to make same payable to the Hospital Board of the district to allot in goods or kind by weekly grants.

That steps he immediately taken by the Government te secure for practically every hospital in the Dominion sufficient of the many motor ambulance waggons which will be thrown on the market at the end of the war. That clauses 2 and 3 of the'regulations under the Nurses Registration Act be amended in ordei that a matron or superintendent v of nurses may not be made the sole arbiter ip dismissing pupil nurses after three months' training, without reference to the Board, or that it shall oe necessary for the Registrar ot Nurses to consent to the termination of the training of pupil nurses. Respecting the Education Department's proposal to alter the system of charging for the maintenance of indigent children, the Hon. j. W. Russell advised that the Crown Law Office had given him the following opinion:—"The Education Department is not authorised by law te make a charge according to the actual cost of iiiaintenancc of a child with a minimum of 10s weekly, nor is the Department authorised to retain all monies received from the par-' ents of the child until it ceases to be an inmate, and then only refund to the Board the amount in excess or 1 the cost of maintaining the child. It is quite clear that the Education Department must provide for the,cost of maintaining and educating children who are inmates of industrial schools, less any amounts received from parents and others who are required by statute to contribute to the support of inmates, but it is not authorised to collect L'he whole cost of maintenance of any (inmate.''