The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1903. THE DOMAIN AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 210, 3 September 1903, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1903. THE DOMAIN AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that toe can do.

In another column Aye publish a plan of the Domain, showing the area on Hospital Hill selected as a site for the minor infection hospital, and the section oil' Stanley-street which it is proposed to take in exchange. The Hospital Hill site has been re-surveyed, and now lies much further down the hill than before, in such n, position that the infection ward will not he conspicuous, and will occupy the lower slope of the hill, which is practically useless for recreation purposes. The new site is an improvement on that originally chosen, as it will leave a larger space between the infection ward and the more frequented parts of the Domain. To everybody anxious to improve the Domain, and resolved that the sick and suffering poor shall not be sacrificed on the altar of Grafton-road property interests, the arguments in favour of the exchange must appeal irresistibly, and we do not doubt that they will have due weight with Parliament when Mr Kidd's bill comes up for consideration. ■#As to the nature of the opposition to this proposal, it is difficult to speak with due restraint. Five thousand signatures, we are informed, were attached to the petitions forwarded to Wellington against the bill. We do not see by what logical process the "New Zealand Herald" draws the conclusion that Auckland, a city of 70,000 inhabitants, is "practically unanimous"' in its opposition to the exchange. But how wore even those signatures obtained? By the most flagrant misrepresentation. The people of Auckland have been assured that the Domain was being robbed without any compensation, for the purpose of putting up a ward for small-pox on Hospital Hill. These allegations are false in every detail. When the exchange is , completed the Domain will be larger than it is now; it will still receive the 1-ental of the Hospital Hill section; and ifc will include a most valuable area of fiat land splendidly adapted for public recreation. As to the small-pox hospital, the opponents of the bill know perfectly well that the proposal for the exchange of sites has nothing to do with that. A fortnight ago members of the City Council publicly denounced the unscrupulous tactics of the "New Zealand Herald," which in one issue reported the City Council's decision to oppose the erection of a suspect ward on the hill, and in another issue a few days later declared that the Council advocated the very step that they had unanimously condemned. But these tactics are unfortunately certain of some success with unreflecting men and women. Bearing a plan of the Domain, in which the area to be added to the Domain was carefully suppressed, canvassers had little difficulty in persuading a number of citizens to sign petitions protesting against a bill "to take away a part or the Domain for a small-pox hospital." Of course no such bill ever existed. Our contemporary furnishes to-day another illustration of its peculiar con- : troversial methods, by the use it makes of Mr Baume's remarks upon this question in the House. Mr Baume has very properly said that he could not support the erection of a "suspect" ward for small - pox on Domain Hill. This is a perfectly intelligible remark, and entirely consistent with everything that we have said upon this subject. Yet the "Herald" quotes it as a proof of the opposition to the Domain Improvement Bill, and a reason that the City Council should withdraw from the position it has taken up. Here we have once more the same disingenuous attempt' to confuse two distinct questions and to delude the people of Auckland

into the belief that those who advocate the improvement of the Domain by this exchange of areas also demand the erection of a small-pox "suspect" ward on Hospital Hill. It is a very palpable trick, but the necessity for resorting to it once again reveals the deplorable poverty of real argument on the side of our adversaries. The ease for the exchange is, as we have said, somewhat strengthened by the alteration in the proposed boundaries; but from the first it has been so strong tha>- not even the ingenious casuistry of the opposition otiglit to have much effect upon its prospects. As to the improvement of the Domain, we may mention that the Superintendent of Parks has reported to the Mayor that the Stanley-street section could be converted into an admirable recreation ground with little trouble or expense. It is unfortunate that members of the Scenery Conservation Society and other ■gentlemcMi who are declaiming so loudly about this imaginary loss have not devoted a little attention to the improvement of our existing reserves. At present the Domain is in a very neglected condition, and is haunted by disreputable characters who make it positively unsafe for women and children. If the opponents of the bill who describe the Stanley-street section as a swamp are so anxious about the condition of our public recreation grounds they ought to jump at the exchange, sell the "swamp" —it has just been valued at £2000 — and get the money devoted to the improvement of the rest of the Domain. We have insisted all along that the exchange will not decrease, but increase, the size of the Domain. But even if the contrary were the case, the outcry about thfi need for larger reserves on this side of Auckland is purely fictitious. With the 200 acres of the Domain, Albert Park, the Mt. Hobson and Mt. Eden reserves, and 400 acres at Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill, this side of Auckland has enough public reserves for half a million inhabitants or more, while the endowment for hospitals, quite as important a public object as recreation, is most inadequate. But we need not dwell on this side of the ease. The other arguments that we have urged on behalf of the bill should hardly require reiteration. The need for economy and efficiency in the public treatment of infectious diseases is; sufficiently patent, and a few weeks ago the "Herald," which now speaks with lofty scorn of charitable aid expendi-j tare, was earnestly advocating infection, wards in the hospital grounds to save money for the local bodies and the City Council. It is not for us to find a rea-, son for this sudden change of tone.; Nor will we venture to inquire how the | members of the Auckland Bowling Club, j who did not hesitate to take land from; our Domain for their own personal eom-i fort and amusement, can reconcile it to i their consciences to demand that suffer- j ing women and children shall now be! excluded from their neighbourhood lest their artistic sensibilities should be offended by the sight of a galvanised iron fence. Nothing has been more, unpleasantly noticeable throughout this controversy than the callous indifference to the needs of the suffering poor that the opponents of the bill have displayed. The alternative put forward by the "HeraJd" to this proposal is the erection of the Infectious Hospital at Point Chevalier. In other words, in order to satisfy the prejudices of a few hopelessly misinformed people and defend vested property interests against any possibility of damage, the fevev stricken women and children are to be tortured and perhaps done to death on the toilsome journey along our rough country roads to some outlying spot where they cannot possibly interfere with anyone's view, or lmrfc anyone's feelings, or reduce anybody's rent. And this, notwithstanding the fact that the Health Department declares that such minor infections as are proposed to be dealt with in the projected hospital—scarlet fever, diphtheria, etc.—can be treated without danger to the patients in the main hospital, to residents in the vicinity, or to the public health, on the suggested extension of the Hospital Eeserve. It is an edifying programme certainly, but we have too much confidence in the eominonsense and public spirit of our councillors and our Parliamentary representatives to believe that they will be deterred by the elaborate misrepresentations of the "New ■ Zealand Herald." or the va pourings of the Scenery Conservation Society and the A.B-C. from their manifest duty to the city and the people.