TRENTHAM'S NEW USE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17113, 19 March 1919, Page 7

TRENTHAM'S NEW USE.

4» . ORTHOP/EDIC HOSPITAL, OLD HUTMENTS UTILISED. EXTENSIVE ALTERATIONS. [BY TELEGRAPH.— COBBESrONDEXT.] , WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Grass is growing on the large drillI ground at Trcntham training camp to-day, I but the place is no " white elephant," even 1 (hough its original purpose has ceased. Every part of the camp is required for | military uses of the future, and a prompt . fctart has been made in adapting it for new requirements. Workmen are busy converting many of the old hutments into hospital wards. These large healthy hutments, with a little adaptation, make fins wards, and by an ingenious system of connecting them up with a corridor., and prodding the usual hospital conveniences, they will provide hospital accommodation for about 700 soldiers, who will return to New Zealand needing orthopffidic treatment betoie they are discharged. Trentham had its well-equipped hospital in the training days, and this now makes the centre of the great institution at picsent coming into being Many of our soldiers will lcmember Krithia Road, a camp street close to the hospital compound. It w..is lined with hutments, most of them 140 ft long, with a width of 25ft. Divided into halves, they housed 60 men. The old central partition has been taken out of 10 hutments on one side of the street, the wails have been lined with match boarding, the ventilation brought up to hospital standard, and the lighting improved. ! Each hutment is partitioned off alt one end, to provide i nurses' sitting-room, a i ward kitchen with range, and ample cup- ; hoard accommodation. The only new ' buildings to be provided are lavatories ! with concrete floors, where the patients . will have hot and cold baths and showers. ' But for the lavatory blocks, the whole scheme involves no extra building-, for the hutments lend themselves well to the newpurpose, and the block of 10, makes a hospital for 300 patients, with communication from end to end. It .ip a good I example of economical planning. Un the opposite side of the street, hut- ■ mente have been converted into quarters ; for the nurses and the women helpers who 'will be required. A hutment is partitioned into 30 roomy, ! cubicles, each nurse or helper having a i fepara.y room. One hutment is being i turned into a matron's quarters, and there ; is ample room left for a nurses' parlour. ! The dining-hal] is another hutment, and | an old drying-shed now becomes a cooking ] department for the staff. i Vocational and occupational training ' will be an important feature of the hos- ] vital, and this involves the utilisation of i more hutments. They are being subI divided into shops for boot-repairing, [ ,'nrgical bootmaking, a library for techical I works, a blacksmith's shop, and a workshop for the acetone welding plant, a hairdresser's shop, ironworking shop, leatherI working shop, plaster splint shop, upholstering shop, and other occupational I workrooms. One hutment enters on a now I lease of useful occupation as two lecturelooms for instruction in farming and comI mercial subjects. Storerooms are also rei quired, and thus the hospital spreads i ever more hutments. The Y.M C.A. has i been given the use of a hutment, which is jiapidly being transformed into two wellI decorated halls. One is for billiards, and j the other for writing, reading, and frame.". I There is a large gymnasium in camp, built by the Y.M C.A., with the aid of a Government subsidy. When it is comj plete, it will come into use in this comprehensive scheme, for gymnastics are part lof the orthopffidic treatment." The <.'d I medical hutment, with its large examina- ' tion-room, will retain its former atmo- ■ sphere to Pome extent, because the army ! planners have made it into a massage | establishment,.