HOSPITAL HILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 23, 26 January 1912, Page 7

HOSPITAL HILL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, bo far as we have information through the Press, members of the Hos fwtal Board last evening ran away with the idea that Messrs. Potter ajid Jenkm were bent upon filching some eight acres of the Auckland Domain from the citizens of Auckland, when nothing oi the kind was thought of. Once imbued i with this absurd idea there was no room in members’ minds for the entry of sober j fact. Apparently the echo of threats oi ! personal violence has so affected the dispositions of members that so reasonable 1 a proposal as the exchange of one piece of property for another is thought to 1 be best settled in the typical Ilibefnian manner. Apart from such folly, the proposal to add to the usefulness and beauty of the Domain by effecting therefor an exchange of an area of equal cash value, but of infinitely less aesthetic and practical value, should be dispassionately dealt with, and it is to be hoped that ; the matter will be again brought up, when the Board’s temperament has regained the normal thermometrical reading. It may be true enough that the limit of accommodation, so far as patients are concerned, will soon be reached, but more space for admjaistrative buiidings is needed now, and it may be expected i that the need will increase. For instance, Dr. Pabst indicated only last ■ night that it may be expected that space for the N'ew Zealand Medical School will be required here. A children's hospital is even now talked of. Builcings ( already out of date need removing from ■ the proximity of Park-road. Time was ; that Park-road was not thought of as a j thoroughfare of any importance. It has become so owing to the opening of the Grafton bridge, which effected a transformation in its present and still more its prospective interest. With regard to the area fnominallv i of the Domain) proposed to be added to j the Hospital grounds. It is commonlv known as the Hospital Hill; one half of I the citizens believe it part of the Hospital grounds. As it is, it is an evesore; ! its conformation unfits it for a place of ; recreation, it closely adjoins the tnfectij ous Diseases Hospital. The fact that J the principle has been laid down that | the Hospital has neariv reached the ■ limit for which is to he | provided upon one site renders it un lit-elv that anv buildings ’■■■'ing unsigbtlv will be placed thereon. The portion to i !.“• given bv the Hospital in exchange ■ is, T understand, of greater cash value. - and it is in a manner a restoration to the i Domain of a portion thereof of the I greatest interest to the people. Mav i the Board forget last night’s “ lapsus 1 mentis.” and endeavour to realise that j there is a good and true meaning in the adage: ‘Exchange is no robbery.” —l j am, etc., I CrnZFN'.