The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1885. THE HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BILL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2029, 30 June 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1885. THE HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID BILL.

The Hospital and Charitable Aid Bill now before Parliament is one of those measures by which the Government hopes to make a show of retrenchment. On taking all the policy Bills and.ci>mparing them, it will be found that wHle one proposes to give, the other is calculated to take, the whole policy being after the "rob Peter to pay Paul" style, The measure under notice is one by means of which it is proposed to get back a large portion of the £300,000 which is to be distributed annually among local bodies, It is' expected that it will enable the Government to show a saving' of about £50,000. It .proposes to transfer the cost of maintaining Hospitals and persons jn indigent circumstances, from tjbe Government to local bodies, Hospitals are to be ot two kinds—namely, district board and incorporated. Eor the purposes of tjie former, the hospitals in the Wairarapa would be managed from Wellington. The management of the Hospital in Wellington has been of an extraordinary character during the last eight or nine years. Something has always gone amiss, and inquires and demands for inquiries have been as plentiful as blackberries in season. Probably the Colonial Secretary approves of such | things, and wishes to give the Wellington people more scope for exercising their peculiar faculties in the matter. Those who are really interested in these institutions will - probably object to their «ick being entrusted to the tendei mercies of strangers to them. It is true that the Board of Management is to consist chiefly of Mayors and County Chairmen ; but as these could not be expected to be continually travelling, the bulk of the work would undoubtedly fall on those residing in Welltngton, among whom nodouht, would also he found the one-third of nominated members. In any case, the administration would be certain to deteriorate. The second schedule to the Bill contains a list of Hospitals which may be incorpoiated. A Hospital may be incorporated within a fixed 'period from the passing of the Bill, by petition to. the Governor signed by not less than one hundred parsons, subscribing not loss than five shillings each, and an average of one pound, On the petition being granted, the institution would be

vested in trustees, who shall retire by rotation. The incorporated Hospitals would' lose one half their present subsidy, so that they would certainly be in a worse position in the future than 4 they have been in the past. For the maintainance 1 of District Hospitals a rate' may be levied in such subdivisions of the district as the Board may think advisable. Taken as a whole, the measure appears to he unworkable, like all others that have been brought down on 'the subject, and Parliament will probably amend it so that its own parent will not know it, or order it into the waste paper basket,