STATE SANATORIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10258, 9 June 1911, Page 5

STATE SANATORIA.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS,

AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE

(By Telegraph —Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Last Night,

A deputation i-epresenting the Wellington Trades and Labour Council waited upon Ministers to-day, and urged that the Government should grant sick workers concessions in the matter of railway fares and fees at the Rotorua Sanatorium. It was urged that a very large number of cases of sickness and injury required treatment that could only be given at Rotorua, and unfortunately the men concerned had not the money to pay their railway fare.

The Hon. J. Carroll (Acting-Prime Minister) said it seemed to him that the question was one that went far beyond what could be settled by an individual concession. The question had a deeper root than that, and it was one he would like to see investigated by the Trades Councils and bodies which made provision for the poor. In what way could the Government grant monetary assistance? The mere matter of reducing fares Would not settle this great question. The Hon. J. A. Millar (Minister for Railways) expressed his sympathy with the deputation, but wanted to know how they were going to define a worker. MrD. McLaren, M.P.: "We define a worker in this case as a person who is in want of health."

The Minister said that definition of a worker would cover every man whose doctor's certificate says he would be benefited by sanatorium treatment. The Hon. Mr Millar said it was-a .question whether they had a right to giyo to a section of the community a privilege which was not given to every other section, as the community in question owned the railways. It was, he added, a question of whether they are going to make this concession general. The matter would receive careful consideration.