STUDENTS' ACCOMMODATION.

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 14

STUDENTS' ACCOMMODATION.

There is an oleL complaint of tlie Hardness of his lot “ who treadeth up and down another's stairs.” It referred first to the exile, the receiver of reluctant hospitality, but it might easily he applied to students and their troubles in the matter of board. In. the first place they have to find stairs for their feet to tread domestically, and that, in Dunedin to-day, is no easy task. The difficulty was lessened for a time when the Training College was in abeyance, but now that its members, still increasing, as well as those of the University have to be provided foi, competition is stern. A benevolent Government, in its kindness to staffs, but not to others, has accentuated the problem by putting up the costs at the management of -boarding houses, forcing many of those to go out of business. When the student does succeed in getting board he will not be human if he always feels untempered satisfaction with it. He also is an exile, apt to be' unreasonable as such. The moral basis of boarding houses is an artificial one. They purport to be the same thing as a home, and that is impossible. If the student boarder makes complaints, as almost all boarders do, to themselves at least, whether they are of the scholastic type or not, there is no end to the complaints that are made of him. A correspondent who wrote to us this week did his best to exhaust them. He would deny to the student one shred of considerate character. The fellow is a Caliban and an Oliver Twist combined. He is worst, perhaps, as a Merry Andrew, breaking furniture for his fun.

But that indictment is incredible; it will not pass. If a student should break furniture —not by design—ho is as likely as any other person to pay for it. And for points added to the general indictment, at least mitigation can be urged. It is said that the student boarder will sometimes secure attachments so that the light provided for him may be doubled and trebled; but an uncommon strain must be put always upon his eyes, and it is dangerous to strain those too much. Surreptitiously he may use the lighting for heating purposes. But his work requires Jong sitting, which can be a cold business; he may have come, also, flora a warmer climate. Long sitting inclines him to gambol occasionally for relief, since the student is young. It is common for him to pay extra for extra lighting. Landladies who treat his idiosyncrasies without too portentous seriousness find him reasonable enough to get on with. At the best he can be delightful to know, and at the worst, to paraphrase the ‘ Boarding House Euclid,’ when differences arise, one boarding housekeeper can be equal to any number of boarders, and the victory is made easier by the student’s knowledge that there is no excess of the accommodation which he requires. Excess is not needed, but there should be sufficiency. It is the more called for as the number of students tends to rise, and in present circumstances it can only bo provided, it would seem, by an addition to the number of University hostels. But those arc at present too dear for a proportion of students’ purses. What is wanted is a building, of which the overhead charges will bo as small as possible, where students can bo accommodated as cheaply as they are now in many private boarding houses. The disparity that exists at present is made wider by costs of washing and similar services that are escaped by the private boarder. That disadvantage of the hostel could be diminished by proper arrangements. ' An additional hostel is, we believe, under consideration. As soon as possible it should be provided. Dunedin has more student “ guests ” than any other city of the Dominion. The question is more important than might be imagined.