THE NEW HOSPITAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 81, 5 April 1919, Page 3

THE NEW HOSPITAL

(Tj the Editor.)

Sir, —It may be considered egotistical on my part to assume that my Je ters of protest against the new hospital being ereced at \S oke have not been in vain, but the Board has now. given out a resolution stating that unless the Minis er will purchase the present site, including the nurses’ home, at a fair valuation, the Board will be bound to the present site, and will endeavour to obtain a portion of the Mental Hospital grounds adjacent lor the annexe, etc. it does not state that the resolution was carried, but as there was apparently no opposition We may take i: as being the opinion of the Board, and 1 may say a very wise decision, though long delayed. 1 am satisfied that a very large majority of the Nelson electors would not be in accord with the 'Chairman’s view that to erect the Hospital on a site at Stoke “would be the best 'thing the Board had ever accomplished and push Nelson ahead.” Although it has been said that it would take a surgical operation to get anything into my head I fail to see any reasonable probability of the Minister purchasing the present si e and nurse's' home at a “fair valuation,” as the Board suggests, unles*, the .Department wants it urgently for some purpose the Board has not disclosed. It has been said that the nurses' home would be suitable for a maternity home, but a maternity ward and also a chronic ward were to be provided for in the plans of the new hospital, and if a new site wa s selected a new nurses home would have to be provided at probably greater cost than could be obtained Ipr the present one. Should the Minister, however, decide to purchase the present site, then 1 understand that the Board will put a number of sites before him. the merits of which they have discussed in camera. All 1 can now say is that I will use what little influence 1 possess 'o oppose a site at Stoke being selected should any effort be made in that direction, which under the circumstances I think improbable. 1 am, etc., W. LOCK