BOPDHB History Whakatāne Hospital History Book | Page 25

Following the rejection by the Minister of the Webster’s Hill site in September 1919 the Board moved that: ...a committee consisting of the Chairman and Mr Buddle be instructed to proceed to Wellington and lay the claims of the respective sites before the Hon the Minister of Public Health and ask him to decide the question on the facts submitted: his decision to be final and to be binding upon the Board. After the representations in Wellington by Alex Peebles (the Chairman) and Leonard Buddle, (a Solicitor and recently elected member of the Board), the Board met again on 13 November 191935 and discussed the correspondence from Wellington indicating that the Minister ‘had decided in favour of Kirk’s site.’ A 15 acre portion of this site, situated between Stewart Street and Bridge Street was purchased at £180 per acre36. Mr Kirk and Mr Carter had been using the land as a grazing area for the livestock destined for their butcher’s shop in Whakatāne. Garaway Street, the other street providing a boundary to the proposed Hospital site, was named after Mr HO Garaway who, in 1907 owned about five acres between King Street and Garaway Street. He and his family lived in a house (since demolished) at a site in King Street opposite the exit from Salonika Street. He was, from 1921 until 1933 the Town Clerk for the Whakatāne Borough Council and for a short time the Secretary/Treasurer of the new Bay of Plenty Hospital & Charitable Aid Board37 after it moved its headquarters from Tauranga in 1918. When next in Wellington, the Chairman and Mr Buddle took the opportunity to discuss loan arrangements with the Public Trustee who advised them that no money would be available until after 1 February 1920 but that ‘application for loans for hospitals received primary consideration.’ In April 1920 however, the Board was told by the Assistant Public Trustee that: ...the Solicitor General was of the opinion that the Public Trustee had no power in the existing state of the law to lend to Hospital Boards. As a consequence, the Board was forced to impose a special hospital rate, based on the capital value of rateable property in the hospital district, on the four Local Bodies to raise the £15,061 needed. The special rate of one penny and one thirtieth of one penny in the pound was required, with Whakatāne County contributing £8,073, Whakatāne Borough £993, Ōpōtiki County £4,917 and Ōpōtiki Borough £1,078. Bay of Plenty Hospital and Charitable Aid Board Minutes, Volume 1 [03.12.1902 – 21.06.1917], 13 November 1919 (Auckland, Archives New Zealand, Reference ADHL A1669 22975 6) 36 Alison B. Heath, The Opouriao-Taneatua Settlement of 1896, (Whakatāne, Whakātane & District Historical Society, 1989), pp 83-84 37 Bay of Plenty Hospital and Charitable Aid Board Minutes, Volume 1 [03.12.1902 – 21.06.1917], 22 April 1920, (Auckland, Archives New Zealand, Reference ADHL A1669 22975 6) 35 Page 20