LODGINGS 'FOR STUDENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23351, 17 November 1937, Page 6

LODGINGS 'FOR STUDENTS

tO THE EDITOR

Sir, —Now that the end of the year is approaching and all the schools'and colleges will be closed for the annual holidays. I think that it is an appropriate time to voice a complaint about the food and the surroundings which students are forced to tolerate. lam an art student, and have been studying in Christcnurch and Dunedin. The squalor and dirt of some of the socalled boarding establishments are beyond belief. Imagine a hot day, seven rrirl boarders, a landlady and her husband, and four children crowded into a little kitchen: a few sticks crackle in the range; the gas ring sends out an odorous heat: and we sit down to dinner, composed mainly of a piece of smoked fish, some badlysinged fried onions, and two small, green, old potatoes. We pecked at this, but as we could not force ourselves to swallow, we desisted, and waited hopefully for sweets—some frothed-up jelly and " whipped cream " —a dessert spoon 'of cream in a cup of watery milk with some patent thickening agent—and you have a lot of froth on top and a pale blue liquid underneath. For tea we would have a slice of tinned corn beef, some limp lettuce, bread and butter. Breakfast would consist of two over-cooked prunes in a plate of luke-warm water, a cup of tea, bread and butter. The menu for another dinner would be a piece of meat one inch and a-half in diameter, with a slice of carrot and turnip, half congealed in a greasy liquid called gravy: some plain jelly this time, made out of sago and cochineal, with the same nauseous mixture called whipped cream, and a glass of water.

This was bad enough, but, to make matters worse, we had to fight a losing

battle with the flies for this unappetising fare. There was not a single blind to fit a window, so that we had to turn out the light and undress in the dark. Never was it possible to have a hot bath, unless we bought a bag of wood for ourselves, and we bought our own milk.

Although the shops were stocked with fresh, green cabbage, spinach, silver beet, etc., we never got a spoonful to eat. For this luxury we paid at the rate of 25s per week, and were allowed no reduction for holiday? unless we were away for eight days. The cats belonging to the house were always holding parties, and their shrieks as they scratched in the uncultivated garden plot were something that, once heard, was not easily to be forgotten. Hoping that some person trained in economics and relative food values will be operating a boarding establishment next year,—l am etc., Art Student. November 15.

[A register of premises fit for approval as students' lodging houses is prepared each year by the University Board of Control—Ed., O.D.T.]