The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1922. FALSE ECONOMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 June 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1922. FALSE ECONOMY.

At the last meeting of the Taranaki Hospital Board, a communication was received from the Direc-tor-General of Health, notifying that after the end of the present month the subsidy of £75 a year, hitherto paid by the Department for work done by the district nurse among the Maoris, would cease. In describing this action as another blow at the board, the chairman only mildly expressed a very natural feeling of injustice, but other members were not so tolerant in their condemnation, some very bitter comments being made on the matter. All reasonable people recognise the urgent need for economy, and none more fully than the members of the Hospital Board, for the reason that they are faced with impiense difficulties in meeting the board’s financial obligations. Those who resick in proximity to the Natives arYonly too painfully aware of the menace to health that this nearness involves, and the board has been doing its best to minimise the danger by providing a district nurse, an important part of whose duty consists of teaching the Maoris how to keep themselves and their surroundings in a 1 clean and sanitary condition. One factor in this business is that, although the board has levied tfie ratepayers to provide £l5O a year to defray the nurse’s expenses, the Maoris pay no rates, so that if the Department’s subsidy is withdrawn as threatened, the whole expense would fall on the European portion of the residents in the district. The board’s estimates have been framed and the rates struck after allowing for the subsidy in question, so that the board has no margin to go upon; all that can be done is to dispense with the services of the nurse, unless the people in the district prefer to make np the amount by voluntary subscriptions, sooner than run the risk of an outbreak of epidemics that would probably prove disastrous to their welfare. To dispense with the safeguard of a trained nurse under such circiimstanees is unthinkable, therefore a strong effort is to be made to bring the Government to a fitting state of its duty in order that the subsidy shall continue. What can be said of an economy that relieves one party at the expense of others? It is alarming to realise that a State Department particularly charged with the dntv of safeguarding the health of the people should deliberately deprive the community of a proved means for combating the menace arising from insanitation and carelessness among the Native race. Possibly it may be argued that £75 ic a very little matter to cause trouble, but so far as the Hospital Board is concerned it is not a question of this amount alone, but of other and larger sums to meet special requirements that are constantly cropping up—“the constant drip wearing away the stone.” Apparently, for some inexplicable reason, hospital boards are being made a target for Government economy shells, for nor , only is the Native service grant cut off, but the boards are to be deprived of the license fees received from land agents, and as the Taranaki Board has counted on obtaining this year £l3O from that source, and now finds it has been stopped under the new regulations, it is not surprising that the feeling of injustice is particularly strong, and thoroughly justified. It seems inconceivable that Ministers are not fully ajvare of the effect of thus playing fast and loose with hospital funds, for if there is one activity of the State in which generous treatment should be the first con-

sideration, it is the care of the sick, suffering and distressed. British justice -and fair play* still exists, and for the credit of the Dominion Government it is to be hoped that attacks on the funds of the hospital boards will be successfully repelled. The matter is one that members of Parliament of all shades of political opinion, as well as all hospital boards, should unite to have rectified. The evils of government by regulation have frequently been denounced, and with good reason. The latest illustration emphasises that the work of hospital boards shall be aided to the utmost within reason, and not hampered by raids on their funds. Such false economy must be totally condemned.