The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1910. A WHITE ELEPHANT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15333, 16 June 1910, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1910. A WHITE ELEPHANT.

The position in regard to the Consumption Sanatorium on tho Cashmere Hills is humiliating. The people of Canterbury responded generously when they were asked to provide funds for the# "erection of an institution that would alleviate the sufferings and restore the health of many hundreds of unfortunato victims of the “ white plague.” A committee that included several prominent members of the medical profession was set up, the aid of the Government was invoked, and a site was selected. Plans for the necessary buildings were prepared and were approved by the Health Department, and the ornate structure that now overlooks the city front a spur of the Cashmere Hills was erected. Then came a long delay, duo apparently to the discovery of the fact that no funds were available for maintenance purposes. Tho old Hospital Board was not ready to assume control when the citizens’ committee had completed tho work, and the South Canterbury Board, which had been expected to join in the undertaking, decided to make its own arrangements for the treatment of consumptives. The North Canterbury Board did at last accept responsibility for the institui on, and after prolonged deliberations it decided to appoint Dr C. J. Blackmore to the post of medical superintendent. In tho meantime the people who had provided the money for the maintenance of the unpretentious but efficient “ camps ”> conducted by Nurse Maude had assumed that the need for individual effort no longer existed, and sufferers who would have been able to secure prompt treatment among the sandhills and lupins of New Brighton applied in vain for atlmission to the empty buildings on the Cashmere Hills. And now Dr Blackmore, speaking with the authority of tho expert, has told tho new Hospital Board that it should undertake the erection of a more suitable sanatorium, and devote tho existing buildings to “some other purpose.” The institution is a most expensive one to administer, owing to its situation, tho high winds tliat prevail make the treatment unsatisfactory, and the structural design of the main building is not good. Tho medical superintendent suggests that it would “ almost pay the Board to ‘scrap’ the sanatorium and build another ” on a now site and according to an improved design. We do not know who is most to blame for this extraordinary state of affairs, and there is no good purpose to bo served at this Into hour by attempting to find out. What wo have to do now is to ascertain with the least possible amount of delay whether other experts confirm tho view expressed by Dr Blackmore, and if they do to proceed with tho repair of our blunder. If tho sanatorium is unsuited to tho purpose for which it was intended tho community must make tho best it can of a very bad job and give tho Hospital Board its hearty support iu tho establishment of an efficient institution capable of providing the. help that is so urgently needed by many sufferers. Wo shall have paid very doafly for our experience, but the price must not prevent ps applying it to a better directed effort.