FOR SICK CHILDREN.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1269, 26 October 1911, Page 5

FOR SICK CHILDREN.

. « JHE NEW HOSPITAL. TO BE READY LN FEBRUARY. Tho Children's Hospital, for which the Wellington public, under gentlo persuasion from Mr. Hugh Ward, and his littlo company of clever people, subscribed so generously a little moro than a year ago, is now getting near to completion. Tho outside walls are built, ami nearly all the tiled roof is finished, , but a deal remains to be done inside. A few rooms have been finished, but , tho bulk of the inside work remains yet to bo done. It i» expected that the work '. will bo out of tho contractors' hands ( about the beginning of next year, and that the hospital will bo ready for occupation in February. The new hospital , will accommodate about 75 beds, but it ■ will bo passible, in cases of emergency, •) to tako in even 100 patients. At present j the number of children in tho public ( hospital averages about 50, and they are stowed away all over the building. This irrangcmeiit, or this lack of arrange- , ment, is all that is possible now, and both children and adults will bo much happier when the new building 'is ready. The hospital for the children is situ- ■ ated in n sunny corner of the grounds, near enough to "tho main building to be " easily administered from it. The outside walls are of red brick, relieved with white rough cast in places, and the roof is of red tiles. The end portions of the , building are of one storey, and tho mid- ' die section of two storeys. Both of tho end portions are wards, and the bulk of j the upstairs portion is occupied by a ; third warn. It will be possible to iso- ; lato tho upstairs ward, so that it may ' be worked apart from all the ( rest of the hospital in the event k of an outbreak of measles or some -' such infectious disease to which chil- <■ dren are subject'. Tho rest of the space ' is taken up by small observation rooms (which may bo necessary, for instance, in 1 cases of very bod pneumonia), food-pre-paring rooms, an operating theatre and '' sick room, drying rooms, linen rooms, and J! bathrooms. There is also a wide ver- J andah, portion of which is glassed in [ to make a sun-room. i. In the wards, as in all the other rooms. everything is designed with the severest simplicity. There aro no corners and ' crevices, everything is smooth, so that c tho microbe may not find anywhere a - comfortable lodgment. For all tho sever- l ity the general effect indoors is bright J and cheery; thero is sun, and light, and l air in plenty. Ono happy thought struck J somebody who was responsible for the do- ■■ signing of the building, t'o build into tho walls a number of largo china pic- c t'ure panels telling in a way that even s a small child can understand somo of tho ' fairy stories that aro now going out of - date. The panels aro being made in ' England. This is the only attempt at a decoration in any part of the building, v for the walls are of plain white tiles, ' or plain white plaster, relieved only by ± the plainest windows. For all that, tho new Children's' Hospital strikes ono as a being a place where little folk who aro t unfortunate enough is 1» ill may bo i thoroughly well and kindly cared for, and I where they may yet bo tolerably happy I in spite of their ills. ) a