Page 10 Advertisements Column 2

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 10

The size of the staffs of the Auckland and Eotorua military hospitals has been declared by a number of responsible soldier patients to be excessive (says the Auckland Herald). They claim that the Defence Department is wasting a very large sum annually in keeping on the hospital staffs a number of officers and men for whom there is not sufficient work to keep them half employed. "It is scandal/' remarked one officer. "The number of patients is going down; practically all men requiring treatment are back from England, and it appears to me to be an utter waste of money to maintain these medical staffs at their present strength." The Herald adds that if, as is claimed, the staffs are unduly large, the expense' to the country must be great, seeing that the medical officers receive the' highest pay in the service. The scale of pay is: Lieut.-Colonel, married, £1053, single £986; major, £913 and £858; captain, £BOS and' £748. Aparl from the medical officers, however, it is affirmed that the non-commissioned officers and privates in both places arc far from being over-worked, and that their number could be considerably reduced _without affecting the efficiency i of the institution. ~ '