HOSPITAL BOARD

Evening Star, Issue 20468, 26 April 1930, Page 2

HOSPITAL BOARD

MONTHLY MEETING The monthly meeting of the Hospital Board was held in Thursday night, when there were present:—Messrs W. E S. Knight (chairman), Quelch, Dove, Scurr, M'Lennan, and Morgan, Dr Newlands and Mesdames Ross and Macdonald. - PREPARATION OF PLANS. The Director-General of Health wrote advising that when the site for the new maternity hospital had been decided upon the actual preparation of plans and specifications would be undertaken by the Public Works Department. ,Tho Chairman said members would remember that ho had previously, in committee, taken objection to the department’s taking the preparation of the Elans out of the hands of the board, but e supposed that, as the Government was providing about £50,000 of the cost, if it insisted the board would have no alternative but to agree. Ho thought it was a mistake on the department’s part to ‘take the 1 matter but of the hands of the board. The present hospital buildings reflected credit not only on members of the board, but also on the board’s architect. Mr Dove trusted that when the department set about preparing the plans they would be submitted to the board to allow those who would have to work the institution to discuss them with the board’s architect. All tho wisdom of New Zealand was not restricted to Wellington, and the dean and members of the medical faculty should have an opportunity of seeing the plans. Mr Quelch thought it could bo taken for granted that the plans would bo submitted to the board. Tho board had to submit its plans to tho department, and he thought the department would submit its plans to the board. The letter was received. ELLIOTT STANDFIELD.

Mr Mark Silverstone wrote asking the board to reconsider, its' former decision not to grant any further assistance to Elliott Standfiold. Standfield also wrote stating that ho was at present sleeping in a cellar, with the blankets lent to him by the board, with rats as his nightly companions. He was allowed to sleep in the cellar through the kindness of two ratepayers, but ho was practically starving, and had it not been for a couple of friends he might have been found in a critical state. . , - Mr Dove said that he had been to the cellar which Standfield was using, and the bed consisted of some sacking and the board’s blankets. It was not a place in which ho (Mr Dove) would care to sleep, and it would certainly be rat-infested. The question was what to do with such a man. . Mr Scurr stated that Standfield had been offered work to lead a blind man at 30s a week,- and had turned it down. He was then found a job at Mosgiel with a good home and good food and 10s a week to feed fowls, but he absolutely declined to take it. He said he did not want the board to find him work; hut to find him a, home. On the motion of Mr M'Lennan it was decided that the letters bo received, and that the board take no action. BAKING BENEVOLENT GROUND. Speaking to tho motion for the adoption of tho report of tho Benevolent Committee, Mr Dove took.exception to tho clause relating to tho filling in of tho ground at tho Talboys Homo. He strongly objected to tho method to bo used to fill in the ground. It would require to be filled in to a height of four or five feet to bring it tip to the level of Cargill road, and he asked tho committee what it was going to do with regard to tho properties in Josephine street that had low backyards. He was absolutely opposed to the, ground being used as a tip, as it would lead to a nuisance being created in a residential area. The board would be inundated with complaints from residents and also from inmates of tho home. No doubt regulations would be made, but there would be great difficulty in enforcing them. Food would be put into the tip, and vermin would follow. Mr Dove was informed that the only wav to remedy the matter would bo to rescind the board’s former resolution, and Mr Dove said ho would give notice of motion in that direction. The report was then adopted.