NOTES FROM DUNEDIN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 31, Issue 9234, 21 September 1900, Page 3

NOTES FROM DUNEDIN.

{By Our Owv

'■"•■"SRESi'OSDENT.)

■The public hav- ova.u once more aroused c'nring -the Past week to the sense of the need there is for a fever hospital in' Dunedin. Cases of infectious disease are not wittingly received by the ai.tiioritii-s into the general hospital in Great King-street. The by-laws of the institution forbid the admission of such cases, the jnstificalion for their refusal bei'iso- that- if the infection should be communicated from the fi-vrr patient to one of the ordinary cases under treatment iu the hospital and an epidemic should thus be caused the consequences would' thus be very serious indeed, the patients being generally "peaking persons in a low state of health who would be unable to overcome an. attack of fever. From one tipint .of view, this argument carries great weight, but it does not appeal at all forcibly to the stranger who arrives in Dunedin With one of her family- suffering from what is "diagnosed to be a case of diphtheria. The l'o?pital"will not receive the case. Nor will anyone else. The private hospitals are small, without provision'for the isolation of ■cases of infections disease. Moreover, the'r charges are so high as. to, restrict their patients to members of families that are at least comfoitably off. It cannot be expected 'hat private individuals will accept a case of i ifeclious disease into their houses, the pat en I being a person of whom they knew . nothing. In any case most private house- 1 - offer' no conveniences for the nursing of ' fever" patients. So it happened one night list wciktbatan .unfortunate woman arriving late at night from O.imaru with her son, who developed" suspicious'symptoms on the way down which were diagnosed as diphtheria, had to accept the poor hospitality of the police-station until, at the instance of the mayor as chairman of the Board of Health, .accommodation was found for the case somewhere about midnight. It has since turned •but that the diagnosis was incorrect and that the case is not one of diptheiia. But nevertheless there the fact remains, that had the case heen what it was at first supposed it was the city was without a public institution for its reception. What is required is either a fever hospital or. a fever ward. The ,■ latter would probably suffice, and there is no special reason why, with proper safeguards in the direction of isolating the • ■patients and nursing staff, it should not be (located in the hospital grounds. .-. The municipal elections last week excited very little interest. There were contests in three of the wards, but the result was in each case a foregone conclusion. Mr Park had a most decisive win in Bell Ward • over his opponent, Mr Jolly, a watchmaker. \vith rather crude ideas concerning politics. colonial and municipal.:-whose public services consist chiefly in the fact that he is a member of the committee of the Otago Central Railway League. Returning thanks for his re-election Mr Park gave nearly eighteen months' notice of his intention to contest the mayoraltj'in 1901. He is looking well ahead. In High Ward the field of candidates was-in all senses of the word a miserable one. Any person of oidinary business capacity and good reputatioh'wouW have gone iq comfortably. As it was- Mr H. E. Muir \>eat ~Mr D. C. Cameron comfortably. ;-3lr-. _ Muir, once a compositor, subsequently " editor of the Globe, and assisted that mismanaged and' unlucky sheet into its grave." Then he returned to the " case." and on the dredging boom commencing .blossomed out into.a sharebroker, and became chairman of the Equitable Stock Exchange. ' He"' is credited with having executed avolie face on the licensing question and with being the author, of a pamphlet issued a couple of years ago by i: Ex-prohib-itionist." His opponent, Mr Cameron, on the other hand, is a shining light among the Good Templars. In South Ward Mr James Gore was opposed by Mr J. Wren, who should -have learnt a good deal about how to -conduct an election during what time he -was foreman painter in the employ of the late;Mr Fish, but on this occasion Mr Gore "beat him. severely. Yesterday the ratepayers were given the second opportunity of "voting on the proposal to borrow £65,000 for an extension of the water supply. At the first poll 250 persons voted in favour of the proposal and 250 persons against it, but this time,692 persons; favoured the proposal and 413: opposed it. As over 3000 ratepayers ■were entitled to vote the apathy they displayed is riot very creditable. Public specu- ■'* nation is now being directed to the possibility or! a contest taking place for the mayoralty between Mr G-, L, Dehinston and Mr Chiiholm. " Mr Derinis&n stood aside last "year in favour of the present mayor, and has 'strong promises of support for this year. But Mr Chieholm is being pressed to stand again, and as it is believed he finds the mayoral chair very comfortable he may consent. In that case an interesting contest will take place. The question of where the S'tefor the new "railway station should be is being ,a good 'deal discussedin business circles.- The Railway Department has deckled that the =... must either be at Stuart-street or in the - -alternative at St. Andrew-street, the plea 'being that the position of the present ■station is unsuitable unless closed. If the department's views'" are adopted either Stuart-street or St. Andrewstreet must be closed according to whether ■the station is fixed at the fonrer or at the latter site.. In any event an important street crossing must, according to the departmental " plans, be closed to traffic. What puzzles the. mind of laymen who have considered the question carefully is why the present site, . which is quite as large as, if not larger than, . the site of the railway stations in many cities of the Old Country where the traffic is greater than it is in Dunedin, or a site. south of Rattray-street, where there is-a large railway reserve, at present only partially occupied with goods sheds, should suffice. So far, however, there have only been individual'expressions of opinion from the public on the matter. To secure an expression of opinion from J the people as a whole a public meeting is required ; to. - secure the opinion of business people a meeting of the Chamber of. Commerce is required No meeting has yet been called. What people are inclined to believe is that the Government would only be too glad to receive an emphatic protest against their proposals, as they, could then drop the matter

of a construction of a new station and say. • ~- that the public of Duriedin did not want it. -,_ '"The public do want it, but they do not want where the Government propose to put' it. They would, however, rather have it where ' the_ Government propose—and the alternative'plan is, it is believed, now that which is likely to commend itsely to the authorities ■—than not have it at all. Dirnedin, Sept. 18.