TREASURE TROVE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 170, 20 July 1910, Page 8

TREASURE TROVE.

THAT OWNERLESS ENDOWMENT. HOSPITAL BOARD'S CLAIMS FOR A MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Tlie recent utterances of the chairman of the Auckland Jiduoation Board, setting forth the claims of that body to administer the revenues of a valuable block of land in Auckland City for tno benefit of education in the province, have stirred the chairman of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board to action, and last night he raised the question at the Board meeting. Mr. Mackay said that no doubt the members of the Hospital Board had heard something of the discovery by the Education Board of a rich treasure trove in the old Supremo Court site endowment, bounded by Queen-street, Victoria-street, and Darby-street. He went on to say: "The attempt of £he Education Board to claim for itself the rents of the old Supreme Court site endowments for the sole use of public school, or primary, education in the province of Auckland is not borne out by the old Provincial Statutes, and ia another example of a local body trying to aggrandise itself at the expense of other local bodies, who have an equal claim with the Auckland Education Board. We have in the Auckland Hospital district fifty-four local bodies, whoso claim is baaed on a purely educational one. These local bodies are represented by the Auckland Hospital Board, wnose work in connection with the hospital cntail9 the professional education of about 100 women. It will no doubt interest the ratepayer generally to know that Auckland has a training school for nurses, which is doing a work valnable and important to the community, and the fact is now being recognised "by the leading medical, authorities that Auckland, from its geographical position, is destined In the near future to become a centre for the medical education of the North Island of New Zealand. There are only two larger hospitals in Australasia, and they each have medical schools attached. Some provision has already been made for the maintenance of a Medical School in Auckland. A glance at the map will show that Auckland is the natural capital of New Zealand, when consideration is taken of its relation to the great trade routes of the Pacific. Its overwhelming superiority in population and consequent facilities for instruction must eventually force recognition of its claims. The honorary staff of the hospital has already proposed a- scheme for the establishment of post graduate training for nurses. The upkeep and maintenance of such a scheme, together with the , training of nurses, is a costly matter, and, therefore, when the Government has at its disposal such a valuable endowment, these facts, just stated, should be weighed carefully, before any apportionment is made. Evidently the Education Board has not gone into the strictly statutory disposal of the rents, and the chairman was somewhat too premature in suggesting that the organiser of technical education should have priority in the apportionment of the rents. Another strong argument in favour of the Hospital Board's claims that the endowment be reserved for hospital building purposes is to be found in the fact that the population of Auckland is increasing at the rate of 20,000 in 10 years. It should be urged upon local bodies in their own interests that they should bring this matter before their respective Parliamentary representatives, and urgo upon them that in apportioning this endowment tho Auckland Hospital shall not bo forgotten," Mr. Maekay had fortified himnelf by procuring a logr.l opinion from Mr, R, McVoagh on tho Riibjeet, whloh opinion was road and considered hy- the Board In eomnutteot