THE HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID ACT. Action of the Waikato County Council.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2089, 26 November 1885, Page 3

THE HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE AID ACT. Action of the Waikato County Council.

At the meeting of the Waikato County Council ycitiTfliiy Mr Barugh, the representative of tiie council in the Hospital Board, bri' fly n ported what had l«en done at thn meetings at Auckland. He pre•uiiied tli.it councillors had read the Act. j Mr Seddon said lie had read it, and had come to the conclusion that its title should be altered. Ho would nujrcrest that it be called "The Pauper IncuWtin? Act." Mr Barugh Raid he had dealt with xcreral blemishes in the Act in .1 letter v Inch appeared in The W.ukato Time*. There were nMny others which ho would nut trouble them with now. He would, however, jxunt out that unlexs locil bodies made specl.il contributions to the funrln of wliat are c-illfd" separate m-titutions,''they could not «hare 111 the management. He continued :—: — As I m.iko out the incidence of the Hohpital and Charitable Aid Fund, it will amount to nearly 3d in the pound on the annual value at which we are rate 1. This is peculiarly hard upon the farming div tiictnat a distance from Auckland. We all know by painful experience that the annual value at which we are i.ited n much more than the income which we deiivc from our land, and the greater part of the farmers in country districts ha\e no othrr income e\cept what they derive from the land. In towns rateable value does not at all represent the income of the residents, but nearly allf.nmcis in country districts know that rateable value ix generally much greater than their income. Thin act will fall with unjust weight ujHtn li-*, especially an we contribute scarcely anything to the cause of expendife tnre. The paupers are not «<f our making. I have no doabt that thu (Jovernwient expenditure has been injudiciously ,md carelcnnly ndmininistered, or this heavy burden could never ha\o fallen upon a young country where wages are higher than in almost any part of the world. From the . manner m which the future distributors of ft relief are to be chosen I have no hope of any amendment in the future. From long experience I know how easy it is to ttlide into a ruinous ex|>enditure for apparently benevolent, but more truly for pauperising purpose*, and when once the mischief is firmly established amongst us, ai I am afraid it in in Auckland, a granp of iron can scarcely arrest a continually accelerating Hpeed in ,a downward coune. Practically under this Act the ratepayers have no control over tho expenditure. It id placed in the hands of people who will be constantly tempted for the sake of gaming the character of being actuated by charity and benevolence to abuse their Bpending powern. The working of the Act will most certainly be found to be most unuatirtfactory to the ratepayers, and especially to those parts of the country which receive scaicely any benefit from tho expenditure, and are called upon t > contribute no largely towardn it. We may * safely calculate that the amount requiiod -^will incroane rapidly, and against this we have really no remedy. I should like to hear from member* any suggestion they may hare to make. The Chairman cordially endorsed all that had fallen from Mr Barugh. He thought the council should at ono initiato a movement in the direction of getting the Act amended. A committee might be appointed to draw up a circular 1, letter to be sent to all the county councils I in the colony, in order that a general scheme might be devised. Ho did not think it would bo possible to get the Act wiped out next session, but they might by a determined effort secure important amendir.enti. Either the bams of the assessment BhAuld be altered or tho country districts should only be cilled on to pay for what they got. He would move that a committe* consisting of Meusri Barugh, Sodden and the mover be Appointed to prepare a circular to be deHpatched to all the other county councils. Mr Seddop, in seconding the motion, fyouKbt Mr B»rugb and tho Maywc of

Hamilton wore deserving of the best thanks of country settlers for the attitude they had taken up in the Board. The Act was a most cumbrous piece of legislation, most unjust in its aims, and he was pleancd to know that there was a likelihood of its proving unworkable. He h.iid the amount for which the country di«tricts were asse«ed was ridiculous. It was the town that made the paupers, not the country. The town held out allurements to the spendthrifts and made paupers of them. He was ntrongly of opinion that the country districts should be separate from the towns. Mr Barugh said he had it on the very best authority in Auckland that large sums of money were annually wasted in charity. Many men able to undertake light work were provided with free quarters in tho home and outdoor lei ef wns given indiscriminately. Mr Moss told him that when the bill was passed, members did not know what they were doing, and one member, » highly intelligent man too, when addressing his constituents down South, ho far misunderstood the Act as to say it was the only good measure paised during the session. (Laughter.) The Chairman said the proper course was to mako people pay for what they got. The country districts would be quite prepared to do this. The motion was then put and carried, and it was agreed Unit the committee should meet at the Council Chambers on Saturday, the sth December.