EXHIBITION HOTEL

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 7

EXHIBITION HOTEL

Purchase Approved By Hospital Board PRICE OF £24,000 Temporary Accommodation For Nurses By 10 votes to live, the Wellington Hospital Board at a special meeting decided yesterday to purchase the Exhibition Hotel and contents at a cost of /24.000 for ' use as a temporary nurses’ home. At the meeting a letter was read from the Director-General of Health, Dr. M. H. Watt, strongly recommending the board to take immediate steps to purchase the property and thus secure gieatlyneeded additional accommodation for the nursing staff. ' An assurance was given that the proposal would not nullify the proposed erection of a new nurses’ home block in the hospital grounds. In his letter, Dr. Watt said that the hotel and contents could be puichasel for £2-1,000. An assurance had been given by the Wellington City Council that an extension of the lease of the land to at least 15 years would be obtainable. Equipment and furnishings were valued by the department at approximately £7OOO. The Exhibition Hotel Company intended to sell outright and a lease at an annual rental for the buildings would not be obtainable unless the Government bought the property in the first place. The department did not favour such a proposal. . . .. In the departments opinion, pt would be a mistake under present conditions to ignore the possibility not only that the hotel building would be required bv the board for some years to come, 'but that, because of the exigencies of the war, the erection of a new nurses’ home block might not be proceeded with as expeditiously as hoped. In the opinion- of the department, the board would have to pay a rental for a lease of the buildings of approximately £2OOO a year. An arrangement to lease might easily prove a source of difficulty and dispute from time to time as between landlord and tenant. Comparative Figures. The chairman of the building committee, Air. A. 11. Carman, gave details of an interview in the Prime Minister’s room when three members of the board —the chairman, the chairman of the house committee and himself—had met Mr. Eraser and representatives of the Health and Treasury Departments. That sub-committee had urged as strongly as possible leasing the building.' , , Mr Carman quoted figures to show the cost to the board of purchasing and of leasing the property. The cost to the board for live years if the hotel were purchased would be £22,140, including buildings £17,000 (less residual value, £10,000), equipment £7OOO, alterations £llOO, rent at £4OO a vear, £2OOO. The estimated annual cost would be £4428, provided the residual value of the building was obtained. If the building were leased for live years, the estimated cost would be £24,240— including ground rent at £4OO a year, £2OOO, rent of building at £2OOO a year, £13,000, equipment £7OOO, alterations £llOO. The estimated annual cost was £4848. Stressing the difficult problem of accommodation for nurses, Air. Carman said Hurt the matron was worried because she had 80 nurses coming on June 20 and she did not know where they were to be put. The immediate problem was to find accommodation for those nurses and to relieve congestion at the nurses’ home, where more than 70 nurses were sharing rooms and 40 more were housed iu parts of the hospital building which were not suitable. Mr. J. Purvis seconded Mr. Carman’s motion that the hotel be purchased. Mr. A. W. Croskery criticized the Health Department for the delay in ■securing the new nurses’ home. He said the board had-been humbugged for wars. A rent of £2OOO a year for tlie'Exhibition Hotel was excessive in his opinion, and if the board purchased the building it would be faced later with the problem of disposing of it. To put the hotel in order would cost the board several thousands of pounds. Supporting the motion, Air. E. Castle referred to the serious overcrowding among the nurses and the larger number to be taken on and trained for war emergency conditions as well irs civil requircmeuts. The board was boarding out DO nurses at a cost of £9OOO a year and that would be the cost if others were boarded out. The proposal to purchase the hotel was sound from the point of view of finance, but the mtriii argument was that they had to meet accommodation requirements for nurses immediately. Purchase Opposed. Mrs. Knox Gilmer: Buying the Exhibition Hotel is a wrong move for this board. It is not a place we as a board would like to see our nurses in. I have no faith in the Health Department’s assurance that this will noi nullify the scheme for the nurses’ home in the hospital grounds. If we give way to them here we won't get our nurses' home and will still have this mud-heap out here in front of the hospital. The hotel is a dreadful-looking place. Alread}’ it one of those ghost houses on Hie moors. Mrs. M.jDowse said boarding-out the nurses would be preferable to putting I hem away out at Evans Bay. When the motion was put it was carried by .10 votes to a, those noting against the proposal being Mesdames Dowse and Gilmer, Dr. 11. Welton-Hogg, Messrs. W. J. Gaudiri and A. W. Croskery. It was decided that immediate application be made to the Health Department and to the Local Government Loans Board for permission to purchase the property ami finance the proposal.