NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 223, 20 June 1925, Page 4

NEW MEDICAL SCHOOL

FOUNDATION STONES LAID

A NATIONAL INSTITUTION

Br Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, June 18. The ceremony of laying the foundation stones of the new (Jingo Medical School took place to-day in the presence of a large gathering, in which all the professions were strongly represented. Members of tho University Council and teaching staff marched in procession to the site in King Street. The Chancellor of Otago University (Mr. T. K. Sldcy, M.l’.), in introducing the Minister of Education, outlined the history of the Medical School, showing how from a small beginning it had grown into a great national institution. The attendance had increased irom 15 students in 1885 to 265 in 1925. Sir James Parr, in rising to lay the first foundation stone, was accorded a very cordial reception. He said that he 'believed that the success of the school was mainly due to the professors and teachers in its early days. The Medical School was not merely a Dunedin institution; it was national. When one considered that £16,000 had been spent on the site, and that the building when finished would cost not less than £lOO,OOO, the impossibility of any Government financing two medical schools in New Zealand was obvious. No doubt Auckland’s day would come, but not yet. As Minister of Education, be was ’ opposed to two of these schools at the present time. He extended felicitations to Sir Lindo Ferguson, who that day saw'the fructification of all his hopes and the accomplishment of his desires. Sir Lindo Ferguson began his campaign for the medical school six years ago, and they owed a great deal to him' for his patient persistence. The Government desired in every possible way to encourage the Medical School and he stressed the importance of getting the very best brains of the community into tho medical profession. The Minister then performed the ceremony of laying the stone, and wasa presented with a suitably inscribed greenstone and gold trowel as a memento from t)*o contractor, Mr. McLellan. Sir Lindo Ferguson, Dean of the Medical Faculty, thanked Sir James Parr for coining to Dunedin to lay the foundation stone and then laid the other foundation stone.