HOME FOR INCURABLES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 201, 22 August 1912, Page 4

HOME FOR INCURABLES.

IO3SSOHS FROM SYDNEY.

A TRUSTEES OBSERVATIONS. As one of the Knox trustees, and having in mind the proposal to establish a Knox Home for Incurables in Auckland, the Mayor (Mr C. J. Parr) awaited himself of the opportunity, while in Sydney, of visiting the hospice attached to St. Vincent's Hospital at Darlinghurat, Sydney. It is proposed .that the institution to 'be built here should provide for 20 beds. The St. Vincent's hospice contains 32 beds, and is, in Mr Parr's opinion, j an exceedingly well-managed institution. It is run. on (particularly economical lines, in thai a religious order is responsible for the management and upkeep of both the hospital and the hospice, and six of the eistera 'belonging to the order are devoting their lives, without fee or return of any kind, to the administrative ■work, -while the nurses undergoing training at St. Vincent's hospital have perforce to spend a certain period of their time in the institution for the treatment of incurables. Still, notwithstanding the good work done in this way, Mr Parr was informed by the Mother Superior that, it cost nearly £.1,000 per year to run the institution. In the horapice they take almost all classes of incurables, including p'bhsiaie, and cases of external cancer are practically the only cases debarred.

"The cast of running St. Vincent's," remarked the Mayor, "enables one to form an idea of what a similar institution would cost in Auckland, and it was very strongly borne upon mc that the Knox trustees would do well to go oarefully, and not -build a place which will involve too great an expense in the upkeep. Of course, if the Hospital Board makes satisfactory proposals to the trustees for the enlargement of the 'building, and the provision of greater accommodation, that will be a matter for the trustees to consider."

At tho request of the trustees of the Institute for' the Blind, Mr Parr also in-quired,-while in Sydney, into the working of similar institutions there, and has returned with a considerable quantity of information which ho will place before the authorities here. The scheme followed in Sydney differs from that pursued in Auckland, in that no provision is made at the institution for the permanent residence of pupils. The completeness of the libraries was one thing which forcibly struck Mr Parr, and in the Sydney institution he found no less than 600 volumes printed in the Braille lettering. In New South Wales particular attention is also paid £o the education of the blind, instructors who are themselves blind being sent out to teach others similarly afflicted. There are some hundreds of blind people attending the Sydney institute, .most of whom are busy in acquiring a knowledge of one of the dozen trades that are taught.