CANCER RESEARCH LABORATORY

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26855, 7 October 1952, Page 3

CANCER RESEARCH LABORATORY

GLOUCESTER STREET PROPERTY CITY COUNCIL APPROVES CONVERSION Conversion of a house at 58 Gloucester street into a cancer research laboratory has been approved by the Christchurch City Council, subject to an assurance that no work will be done or machinery used which would disturb neighbouring properties, and that the building and surroundings will be maintained in keeping with the neighbourhood. The Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson and Westland division of the New Zealand branch of the British Erripire Cancer Campaign Society had applied for permission to convert and use the house at 58 Gloucester street for a research laboratory, the housing and town planning committee reported last evening. The statement said:

The division said that the laboratory should be central and convenient to the libraries of Canterbury University College and the Public Library, that the laboratory would be for research only and that no patients would be treated there, and that the only machinery to be used would be small movable pieces such as a centrifuge and vacuum pumps driven by half-horse-power electric motors.

“From the description of the work to be done to convert the house to the proposed laboratory it would seem that all the alterations would be within the house and that there would be no change in the external appearance of the building,” the committee said. “It is considered that this proposed use is sound and that every effort should, be made to protect it from further encroachment by commercial enterprises. However, it is also an area in which social clubs and educational institutions could be considered as appronriate uses.

“The present application is not a commercial business and could be placed in the educational category. It is. also possible that the external appearance of the laboratory would not be out of keeping with the buildings in the vicinity. It is possible, however, , that the vacuum .jumps which, it is understood, may work throughout the night, might be heard by people in nearby houses.”