DUNEDIN MEDICAL SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 8

DUNEDIN MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Ii is not difficult to understand the enthusiasm displayed at the Otago University Council yesterday over the Government grant of £10,000 for the extension of the Medical School buildings. Even as far north as Auckland such an important addition to the educational facilities of Dunedin might be a subject for congratulation, but for the fact that a large grant has been secured on the ground that the school is not a local but a New Zealand institution. If this means anything it means that the Government is supporting by subsidy the monopoly in medical teaching which the Otago University enjoys to the disadvantage of the other University Colleges. As the Herald has pointed out, the action of the University Senate in fostering specialised university schools is actually retarding the development of education in Auckland in medicine, in engineering and in agriculture. This is the position in Auckland to-day, and as the population and needs of the city grow further checks will be experienced. Whatever may be said in Dunedin there can bo no question that Mr. J. W. Tibbs spoke for Auckland in the letter published over his signature yesterday when he said that by the maintenance of educational monopolies Auckland youths are being shut out from the practice of most of the lucrative professions and the men of the South have the field all to themselves. One of the Dunedin speakers who eulogised the generosity of the.Minister .for Education attributed it to his knowledge of the needs of the Otago School. To this it may be answered that Mr. Allen as Minister for Education should also be conversant with the educational needs of Auckland, and it may be predicted that on his next visit north he will have difficulty in convincing any representative Aucklander that his grant to the Dunedin medical school is a national grant.