HOSPITAL BUILDINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1943, Page 2

HOSPITAL BUILDINGS

REPAIR OF EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE MASTERTON COUNTY COUNCIL APPROVES LOAN. SAVING TO RATEPAYERS PROPOSED. Approval of the Wairarapa Hospital Board’s proposal to raise a loan of £45,000 to cover building work at the Masterton and Greytown hospitals was given at yesterday afternoon’s meeting of the Masterton County Council. A proposed readjustment, it was stated, would reduce the loan to £36,000. A letter from the Hospital Board stated that the loan would cover the following works: Huts for nurses’ accommodation, £4,200; strengthening nurses’ old home, £8,400; strengthening wards, Master ton and Grey town, £4,400; new laundry, mortuary and drains at Greytown, £4,200; new ward and operating theatre at Greytown, £19,000; new kitchen at Masterton Hospital, £4,800; total, £45,000. _ Councillor H. H. Mawley, who is also chairman of the Wairarapa Hospital Board, said that it was a large sum of money to raise but it was necessary on account of earthquake damage. The Government had refused to grant an extra subsidy so the ratepayers had to find the amount less, of course, the usual Government' subsidy. Mr Mawley detailed the earthquake damage. He said that he and the managing secretary (Mr Norman Lee) and others had gone into the question of hospital rating and found that with the rate at 19s 8d in the £ 1 last year there was a substantial credit balance this year. If the loan was raised as suggested there would only be a rate of 15s 5d in the £1 for ordinary maintenance which was not good business. So if the board used some of its credit balance and paid for the huts, etc., amounting to say £9,000 that would reduce the loan to £36,000. That was favourable to the ratepayers and would only mean increasing the annual levy on the ratepayers by £3,600. That figure had to be verified yet but was a close approximation. By paying that figure the ratepayers would save themselves £9,000 over the next 20 years. A greater subsidy from the Government would raise the rate from 15s 5d to 17s in the £l. It was really very sound business. Mr Lee would be putting the proposal into a simplified form so that everybody could clearly understand the position in time for the next board meeting. The Government subsidy tendered to confuse the matter. My J. C. D. Mackley (County Clerk): “The subsidy is a pernicious thing.” Mi' Mawley said that the more the board spent the greater amount of Government subsidy it received. If often paid the board to be a bit expensive.