A CITY COUNCILLOR IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11876, 25 April 1904, Page 2

A CITY COUNCILLOR IN AUSTRALIA

SOME OBSERVATIONS AND COX- I CLUSIONS. I

During a vis-it to Australia undertaken for the purpose of rest, Mr George Payling made a number of observations of matters interesting to him as a member of the Christchurch City Council and Hospital Board. Mr Payling attended a meeting of the Melbourne Council, where he was received very hospitably, and given every information possible. " He learned that the expenditure for maintaining parks during 1903 amounted to £4220 14s 7d, and the net expenditure on street reserves and treeplanting was £1615 13s. Mr Payling also visited the Melbourne abattoir*.' which ore considerably larger than tho<e at Sockburn, but in the visitor's opinion not a bit superior. A great deal of money has been spent on litem, and thousands more are being spent at present on new offices'. The Sockburn abattoirs', however, seemed both lighter and more convenient. The quantity of stock slaughtered at the Melbourne abattoirs last year was as follows:—Cattle M.556, calves 9676. pigs 12.251, sheep 814,672. The receipts (not including fees under the Meat Supervision Act) excevded eight thousand pounds ; the expenditure (exclusive of interest, insurance, and proportion of management expenses of general staff of the corporation not engaged exclusively on this work) over £4700: and the capital expended up to the end of the year £88,096. A visit was also paid to the cattle markets, which were found to be beautifully clean. THE AUSTRALIAN HOSPITALS. Mr Payling went over the Melbourne Hospital, wiili the object of seeing whether lie could i:ot« any improvements which might be introduced in connection with tho hospital here. As the Christchurch Hospital Board has just erected a new operating theatre, he was especially interested in this department of the Melbourne institution. His observations of the theatre showed him nothing which he could recommend the Christehurrh Board to adopt. There were large windows framed with woodwork, of which the wood had shrunk, leaving fissures all round, to whic;. some medical men objected strongly, as admitting dust and microbes. There was a tile floor. The Christchurch operating theatre, be it said, has a floor put down with pure cement, which, while it affords a very smooth surface, is always likely to crack. A large number of operations are conducted at the Melbourne Hospital, and the institution lias been moat successful in regard to the eases taken in hand. Mr Payling also visited a smnller operating theatre in Melbourne, where ninny operations were performed with great success. Many medical men preferred this theatre to that of the principal hospital, and considered that the operations performed there were more frequently successful. The main Melbourne Hospital is under the disadvantage that it is largely dependent on charity for its funds, which are obtained by means of bazaars, concerts, and other entertainments. The Sydney. Hospital, which has 433 beds, and accommodates annually an immense number of patients, impressed Mr Payling as probably the best in Australasia. The operating theatre there had a marble floor, and the walls were formed of opalite tiles. It looked very pleasant and clean, but the medical staff complained that the extreme whiteness is very trying to the eyes. Retinal purple appeared to be the colour most favoured for the interior of an operating theatre. The trouble with the marble floors was that the joins opened, and a number of the fcl&bs cracked, and in time tho marble was liable to become all cracks and fissures. This was also the case with the opalite tiles. The theatre is washed out every day with sterilised water, and is afterwards shut up for two houra. There are also two water motors, by which pure air is drawn into the theatre through a case resembling a. meat-safe, with cotton wool on the inside of tho fine wire screen to stop all germs. Two other motors, also worked by water power, are used for pumping out the foul air, and so the theatre is kept beautifully clean and wholesome. As in the Christchurch operating theatre, gas is installed as well as electricity, in case the electricity should fail. There are two glass roofs, one above the other, for the purpose of keeping out the dust. Every bandage applied is first put through a steriliser, as will soon be the practice in the Christchurch Hospital, now that the new instruments have been obtained. The Sydney Hospital, Mr Payling considers, has a very good theatre indeed, but none of the others which he saw are in any way more advanced than ours. Both in Sydney and Melbourne there are special hospitals for infections diseases. Mr Payling alro inspected the Frince Alfred Hospital, just outride Sydney. The theatre there is not especially up-to-date

at present, bub an expenditure of atJbut £70,000 is being made on a new wing, which will contain two theatres, with concrete floors, upstairs as well as down, to ensure that it will be entirely fire-proof, and fitted up in quite the most modern fashion, according to the directions of medical men who have recently been Home-. The floor of th© present theatre is of tiles. MUNICIPAL GUTTERS. Sydney, at the time of Mr Payling's visit, was in rather an unpresentable condition, as the footpaths were being torn up in connection with the installation of electric lighting. The electric trains, he - considered, were a great boon to the public, but they made a fearful noise, which to a newcomer was almost unbearable for tho first day or two. The nuisance was accentuated by the narrow streets. In George rtreet, where wooden blocks were put down two or three years ago, the wood had bulged considerably alongside of the tram lines, owing to tfie vibra j tion of the trams, and the blocks seemed to be quite loose. The effect was also I attributed to the fact that water had got I underneath the blocks, and swollen them. Now the system is being adopted of leaving a small width alongside of the kerbing uncovered, to allow for expansion. Tho rate at which the water pours down from the middle of the road prevents this space from getting muddy in the wet weather. Mr Payling wir in* Sydney a substance called arkihte, manufactured there by some special process. The City Surveyor told him that it had been used for roading to a plight extent in Pitt street, where a piece had been down for about two year*, and had won* splendidly. Mr Payling visited the place, and noticed that there was not a crack in the material, and that it had not shrunk in the least. He thought that if a floor free from cracks \raa wanted for an operating theatre, this should be the very thing. Ho leanled that it had been used most sucorosfully in several private theatres in Sydney. There it only cost about 6s 6d a square yard, but in New Zealand, allowing for the fact that men would have to be specially brought over to set the cost would be from about 10s to 13». THE UNEMPLOYED QUESTION. Times are very bad in Australia at present, owing partly to the droucht, and partly to the uncertainty which exists among people who have money a* to how far the Labour party are likely to go with their socialistic legislation. During Mr Payling's stay in Melbourne a large deputation approached the Victorian Premier in regard to the unemployed difficulty, and it was stated that there were from 8000 to 9000 persons wanting work in Melbourne and suburbs. In Sydney things were equally bod, and a deputation was formed to solicit work for 7000 men. The general impression in Australia is that New Zealand is a particularly fortunate country, and the visitor found that this opinion was united with a large amount of admiration of Mr Seddon. ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAYS. There is a great idea in Melbourne of electrifying the railways which run to the 1 suburbs it - "it can be done at a, cheap rate. A syndicate has offered to supply power at