OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 22517, 9 December 1936, Page 10

OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Durikg the meeting of the University Council yesterday Sir Lindo Ferguson, dean of the medical faculty, presented a summarised but illuminating history of the development of medical education in this province. Nobody is better equipped with knowledge of this subject than Six Lindo. For the past fifty years he has been closely associated with the work of the Medical School, and has played no small part in shaping the careers of quite a multitude of young men who, scattered not only throughout the Dominion but also abroad, are now upholding the high prestige of a noble profession. The report contains nothing of an egotistic nature. Such modesty is, of course, to be expected from a skilled and thoroughly unselfish medical man whoso whole working life has been marked by a desire to help in, a practical lona tho

development of an institution tlie activities of which have contributed much to the establishment of Dunedin’s reputation as the “ Edinburgh of the South.” Sir Lindo has paid a welldeserved tribute to the self-sacrificing efforts of the early teachers, who no doubt abandoned opportunities of making personal gain in the endeavour to build up an efficient medical school, and, through the services of its graduates, provide the people of the colony (later to become a dominion) with the best services it was possible to secure from surgeons and physicians. There was a time when many students chose to finish their courses at British universities, but the Otago University gave one and all an excellent foundation. Its record is a matter for considerable local pride. Possibly the members of no other profession have been so faithful to the land of their birth and early education as the medical men. Successful study overseas did not tempt too great a number to seek the “ plums ” in the older countries, with the result that New Zealand has nearly always been blessed with an adequate supply of practitioners who have never failed to heed the call of the suffering, whether it has come from urban slum or isolated backblock farm. Possibly some districts have at various stages in their history suffered from a lack of speedy medical attention. Referring to the present, Sir Lindo Ferguson himself says in effect that this problem arises not so much from a shortage of medical men as from uneven distribution. Perhaps this has always been so. It is interesting to read the dean’s observation that if the door were closed to all overseas arrivals the school could provide all the medical men the country could employ. Coming from such an experienced source this statement should effectively dispose of any repetition of the suggestion that another medical school should be opened in the Dominion. What should be forthcoming, however, is a sympathetic hearing for the plea that sufficient funds should be provided for the extensions and improvements which the authorities have in mind for the existing institution. Concentration upon the maintenance of the training furnished in Dunedin at the highest possible level is the real need of the present, and will be the real need of the future. As it has been fortunate for many years in the dean at its head, the school promises to be fortunate in his successor.