A,
4
& still less an unlimited, delegation to the
magistrates
mo rif
tif II, ash for tin,
of(say)
woned suggest delegation 6D mo
200
$ mo
& a final delegation to Financial
Very f (ay) $2,000.
of
bewark
2019/38
No. 3172/13.
灶
As regards the remission of hospital fees,
my views are given in my minutes of the 6th of
January, 1932, on 86433/31 Trinidad and the 11th
of July, 1934, on 23205/34. I may add that
Hong Kong is the Colony where the case I mentioned
in the former minute (in which the patient
always had his hospital fees remitted) occurred.
I agree with Mr. Walker that the duty of
assessment should be kept distinct from that of
collection, and for this reason it is advisable,
where circumstances permit, for the ability or
otherwise of a hospital patient to pay the
required fees to be assessed on admission by
somebody outside the Medical Department, such as
a Board of Guardians or a Poor Law Officer. In
practice, however, it must in a Colony often be
left to the Medical Officer in charge of a hospital
to decide the point, and it is undesirable that
the remission of fees, after he has decided that
fees can be paid, should also be at his
discretion.
The remission of fines by Magistrates is a
rather different question. Hospital fees are
usually prescribed by regulation, whereas a fine
may be an arbitrary sum at the discretion of the
Magistrate, who may, as a rule, order a defaulting
person