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Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 821, 22 December 1865, Page 2

** It is no use crying over spilt milk." It is also useless to lament the vast sacrifice to the country -which has arisen from the " New Zealand Exhibition folly." Much as we may deplore the result of that Utopian enterprise, and condemn the Government which could have shown that plastic and pliable amiability which induced them to fling away the public funds upon a toy —a stupidity-conceived and still more stupidly-constructed toy —we cannot but feel glad that the toy is to be rendered useful at last. The Exhibition Building is positively to become an Hospital. "We do not care to question the policy and wisdom of the decision. One thing is certain, the building wes an abortion, and to "whatever purpose it might have been appropriated, none would have been better than that of an Hospital, if the locality is suited for such an institution. Time alone can decide the question; suffice it for the present that we know the experiment will have a fair trial, and any revival of the question about the site would be unprofitable and useless. But an enquiry into the judicious disposal of Provincial buildings ?« a matter in which all are interested. .Wh|t t is to become of the patchwork

conglomeration of sheds which now do duty as an Hospital, &c. ? This is a question which should be at once decided. They have cost too much to be sold for firewood, and they are too flimsy to be left unoccupied. Has the Government ever considered this matter ? Not the shadow of an intimation has been breathed which would lead to the conclusion that the subject had ever been mooted at the Council table; still it is a subject of much importance. Incompetent and hasty legislation has reduced the Province to a state of pauperism which makes it essential that these matters should be looked to—that every effort should be made to redeem past blunders. It appears that the present Hospital buildings are, to a certain extent, adapted for a Police Barracks. There are many circumstances which point to this as the wisest appropriation which could be made. In the first place, the Hospital site is much more central than the present Police Barracks. Again, rickety as the Hospital buildings are, they are better adapted'to the requirements of the Police Department than the " iron pots " in -which our protectors of the public peace are griddled in summer and half-frozen in winter ; and again, the Government may at any time be called upon to give up possession of the present Police Barracks by the City Council, into whose possession it has passed. It is not likely, after the manner in which the Council treated the £35,000 loan, that the former will neglect to endeavour to appropriate the estate over which they now have control to purposes calculated to bring in a revenue to enable them to liquidate the claim of the Government —a claim which should not have been enforced. The City Council can, by a judicious leasing of the Police Barracks site, pz'ocure an income which will enable them to discharge this liability without resorting to extra taxation. Will they do it ?

This a suggestion thrown out for the deliberation of the Government and the Council. The disposal of the Hospital is one of those qviestions "which should be well debated. It is not a simple Executive matter, but one in which the Council should have a voice. The Province has not a very large landed estate of value, and very little in the city ; it is therefore important that the question of city properties should be thoroughly understood, and wisely debated. There could not be a better time to ventilate the subject. The Police site would, if wiselv appropriated, place the City Council in funds to meet many of the urgent claims they are now unable to discharge. The removal of the Police Barracks is desirable for more reasons than we have mentioned above. The proximity of the Immigration Depot to it is one which should not be lost sight of. "We commend the subject to the attention of both the Government and the City Council.