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New Zealand Mail, Issue 426, 10 April 1880, Page 25

Specifications having been prepared for furnishings and fittings of the new Hospital buildings, and we may trust that, in the public interest, there will be no delay in calling for tenders for the supply of these requirements, and that before the winter season has set in the new Hospital will be occupied by those for whom, in their misfortunes, it has been designed and built at so large a cost. It has too long remained an expensive example of the effects of circumlocution and divided counsels, of money lavished to no good purpose, save in expectancy. It is high time expectations should be fulfilled, and the reproach removed that the sick and distressed dependent on public bounty for medical aid and succour, are worse lodged in the Hospital of the Empire City than in any other in New Zealand. Fortunately, though badly lodged they are well tended, alike by the Hospital staff and the honorary surgeons, who find time amid their professional cares and duties to render assistance and advice in the treatment of Hospital patients. But the most sedulous care and medical skill cannot avail against the evils of overcrowded wards and imperfect sanitary arrangements, and no greater boon can be bestowed upon the sick and suffering members of the community who are compelled to solicit Hospital treatment, than the utilisation of the roomy wards, the calm seclusion and perfect appliances of the j new building. Among the many contingent advantages which will ensue is the verv self-evident one that the authorities in discontinuing the use of the present building at the Thorndon end of the city will in "no degree render that property of less value. On the contrary, the site should form a valuable endowment for Hospital purposes. Situated in a favorite part of the city, and affording good scope for building purposes, the site of the old Hospital

may be made to at once return a revenue of some hundreds per annum, and the value of the property must necessarily year by year increase as the city expands in that direction. Five hundreds pounds per annum is.a very moderate estimate of revenue from such source, and this with the Government subsidy thereon will go a long way in covering the additional expense of conducting the new establishment, even if the number of patients becomes largely augmented. It is assumed that in the furnishing and fitting up of the new establishment the strictest economy, consistent with utility and absolute requirements, will be observed, and that thus the expenditure will not be, comparatively speaking, very heavy. Much of the material and household appliances of the present Hospital will no doubt be utilised, although for sanitary reasons some portions of it will be destroyed and others condemned as worn out or useless. But these are minor points of consideration. The great fact which the public are anxious to see accomplished is the utilisation of the new building, so long permitted to remain idle : for a boon will thus be conferred upon suffering humanity and a reproach removed from the city. There is another ultimate result which will, or at least should, follow the occupation of the new edifice. Among the rising youth of the colony are many who are anxious to join the medical profession. Heretofore practitioners in the city have, we think, been to a very great extent debarred from taking pupils in their art, or at least disinclined to do so, because of the lack of facilities to give them practical training, outside the cases occurring in private practice, and they have had to contend with the prejudice of patients, which is just as rampant here in such respect as among more exclusive communities. Patients able to pay for medical treatment object to being made subjects of essay and instruction to any young sucking Sawbones. The prejudice is, of course, absurd, but it nevertheless exists. The opening of a large public hospital,, fitted for the reception and treatment of every case in the catalogue of ills that mortal flesh is heir to, will afford facilities now wanting for the training and practical instruction of many of the future physicians and surgeons who will make a name and fame in their profession.