STUDENTS' GYMNASIUM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 20, 23 July 1909, Page 4

STUDENTS' GYMNASIUM.

TO BE OPENED NEXT SATURDAY. On Saturday afternoon the new gymnasium which the students of Victoria College have had erected on the section of ground overlooking the tennis courts will be officially opened by the ActingPrime Minister, the Hon. J Carroll. The building has been already described at some length in The Post. It is of two stories, and of wooden construction. The ground floor will be used as a social hall for the convenience of the students. Debates, meetings, dances, and various other functions will be held here. In the past such meetings have had to be conducted at hours which do not clash with the times of lectures, in a brick-walled, uncomfortable voom on the top door of the college. This room has been found quite inadequate + 'or dances, while the restriction as to the hours of its use was irksome. Whenever the Glee Club wished to practice, it had to wait till 9 o'clock, when the lectures were over. On account of the growing demand for room at the college it has now been decided to adapt the top-floor ropm for lecture purposes, so that the provision made in the gymnasium building is timely The new social hall will, it is estimated, seat about MO. In connection with it will be a smokeroom and refresh - menu room, both of spacious dimensions. ,The gymnasium itself is on the top floor, and measure's 68 feet by 48 feet. Details of the equipment have not> yet been decided upon ; much, of course, will depend upon the amount of funds available. An effort will be made to 'introduce all the latest appliances', and it is considered that the gymnasium will compare very favourably with similar institutions in Wellington when finally equipped. It is probable that the piocess will be a gradual one, and some considerable time may elapse before the students possess eveiything they would I - fff m all, the new building cost about £Woo. Of this amount an anonymous benefactor gave £250, the Government made a subsidy of £600, £200 was > derived from the lecture given by Lieutenant Shackleton, and about £i-50 was raised by subscriptions on the part, of students and those interested in the : welfare of Uie college. I The new building, though designated a gymnasium, will be more than a place for physical culture and training. The I provision of a hall for social uses should I do much to foster the corporate life of the college, and give students an opportunity to "rub oft the angles" that often attach to the purely academic man. The structure was designed by Messrs. Penty and Blake, and built by Air. M. Brosnan.