GOOD FRIEND TO NELSON

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 12, 15 January 1914, Page 4

GOOD FRIEND TO NELSON

«. — ,—, — MR. CAWTHRON'S BENEFACTIONS. (II TELEGRAPH— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) NELSON, 14th January. At a meeting of the Nelson Hospital and Charitable Aid Board to-day the chairman reld the following letter from Mr. Thomas Cawthron : — "For some time past I have been of the opinion that a new General Hospital is urgently needed Towards that end I have learned that any donation that I may make will be entitled to a Government subsidy of 24& in the £, so I ask your board to please have plans prepHred for a modern substantial building of the greatest capacity arid with an up-to-date operating theatre, the whole to cost, with any necessary new furniture, the sum of £33,000, of which I can find the basic sum of £15,000 early next month to enable you to claim the £18,000 subsidy. building I should like to see would be a two-story building of ferro-concrete or reinforced concrete, faced with red bricks, etc., similar to the Nelson Institute, with long frontages to north and west, with broad balcony and verandah the whole length and width. I should also like the plans to be shown to all medical men that would look at them." The board adopted a resolution expressing their high appreciation of Mr. Uawthron's gift, and giving the assurance that his wishes would be complied with in the erection of the new building. Mr. Cawthron's benefactions to Nelson aro many,- and represent a very large sum of money. Amongst the most notable are the Solar Physics Observatory, about to be erected near the city ; Cawthron Parkj some thousands of acres in extent, taking in an area of most beautiful mountain and woodland scenery within four miles of the city ; and a large organ at the School of Music, and the church, Hill Steps.