The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1886. THE HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID ACT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2215, 9 February 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1886. THE HOSPITAL AND CHARITABLE AID ACT.

When the local bodies asked the GoiWijment for bread, Ministers gave theni a .stone in the shape of the HoSpitxil mi Charitable Aid Act. From one end .of the colony to the other wo hear nothing bap .oonrplaints of this miserable nieasurc-nota .single person appears to have a good word to say for it. The administration of the Act is in Mr Buckley's department, but as it is possibly altogether beyond his limited capacity, the Premier has come to the rescue, and the pair of legal Ministers .are endeavoring to unravel difficulties which, would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer, ilojifiy, is wanted to carry on existing institutions, and applicants are coolly told tp arrange with their bankers for an advance, as; if institutions of a financial character: were in the habit of lending money' without security. Hospitals and Benevolent Societies all over the colony are in » fin»nc : al muddle. The managers of thoni do not understand the Act, and the Government are in exactly the same, position. The separate institutions now |-,pj n g organised are directed to semi in to the District Boards : an estimate of their income for the ensuing twelve months, but, as this income is based on voluntary subscriptions, and voluntary subscriptions are a most uncertain revenue, jfche estimates sent in will doubtless in most cases be low ones, and the District Board, in order to make both ends meet; will havo to strike big rates. Each year will .probably see a bigger .rate struck, because the Trustees of Hospitals and Charitable Socisties will have only to ask, in order to have money, and they are not likely to be bashful in asking. Money will be frittered all round under i a system where one body will raise the; money, and another body spend it. The' poor ratepayers, who will pay' the piper, will, ,of cojjrse, have no further voice in the matter. By .the time that; the general election cqm.es joujad, the; country will be siok of this measure,'; 1 and Ministers, if they still remain in; power, will have to deny their paternal \ relationship to it and promise to smother their own offspring at the first opportunity.