THE HOSPITAL AND THE HIGH SCHOOL

Otago Witness, Issue 902, 13 March 1869, Page 1

THE HOSPITAL AN D TH E HIGH SCHOOL

However effectively the public buildings of Dunedin may display the merits of local stone-cutters and architects they do not contribute much to the convenience of the public. Some of the most pretentious seem to have been designed simply with a view to the ornamentation of the city; and the intention has been carried out with such fidelity that any attempt to make them practically useful is an inevitable failure. The JNew Post Office is a highly effective piece of street scenery, especially for photographic purposes ; so is the Hospital ; so is the High School, j Externally considered, each of these structures is decidedly creditable to the city. But the citizens can have small pleasure in contemplating their architectural beauties. Any pleasurable emotion on that score is immediately checked by the reflection that these unfortunate buildings are just as useful to the public as Robinson Crusoe's canoe ■was to its builder. The new Post Office is at present serving a variety of purposes, none of which was ever contemplated by its builders. It is practically a Polytechnic, and its destiny will be polytechnic for two or three generations to come. A Town Hall, a Museum, and a Fine Art Gullery, are not usually brought together under the same roof. No one ever dreamt that between City ! Councillors on the one hand, and Science, or Art on the other, anything in the shape of affinity was to be found. The case of the Hospital is still more unfortunate. Originally designed as a Market, it has never been put to that use. After having done duty as the theatre of an Exhibition in 1865, it was then devoted to the service of the poor and termed a Hospital. Every one knows that if there is a public building which, more than any other, requires to be specially constructed for the use intended to be made of it, it is a Hospital. The necessities of the sick and suffering require a multitude of conveniences which must be specially provided, if they are to be had at all. A healthy situation in the neighbourhood of the city, with ample pleasure grounds and garden, is the first requisite of a Hospital. Other requisites relate to the construction of the building, and need no particular mention. It is obvious that the building in which our suffering poor are now housed, cannot possibly satisfy what may be termed the fundamental conditions of a Hospital. It is in the heart of the city — the very last place of all places in which it should be found. Both those who are in it and those who are not in it, have a right to complain in that respect. As for the internal arrangement, some information has been laid before the public by a correspondent of this journal, who — according to his own statements — was an inmate for some months. We are told that the patients are subjected to distressing inconvenience through the unsuitability of the building. In wet and windy weather, the rain penetrates the roof, while chilly air blows through the corridors and bedrooms. Bathrooms and waterclosets are not to be seen. The patients can not be classified as they ought to be ; and consequently good and bad characters are huddled together. These statements have been taxed with exaggeration by another correspondent : but to say that they are exaggerated is to admit that there is some degree of truth in them. There is reason therefore for the belief that the Hospital is not only unfit for the purposes to which it is devoted, but that its inmates are made to suffer from its unfitness. Such a state of affairs is disgraceful. We have no doubt that the matter has engaged the attention of the authorities ;• and that whatever can be done to remedy the inconvenience complained ot) wil be clone without delay, But

there can be no effectual remedy except the erection of a proper building for the purpose, in a proper situation.

I With such a spectacle of mismanagement before us on the part of our rulers, it is not to be wondered at if the High School should be open to least equal objections. There, too, the utter unfitness of that structure for its special purpose is obvious to the passer-by. A large public school without a large playground is more suggestive of a gaol than of anything else. Some among us are very apt to laud our munificent system of education, as if we l-eally presented a model of educational excellence for the imitation of the colonial world. A glance at the exterior of the High School would be enough to create a doubt on that point in the mind of any unprejudiced visitor j while a glance at the interior would be enough to confirm it. The building is not. only unfit for a High School, but it is disgracefully unfit ; and such is its unfitness that any money which might be 'spent in improving it would be simply thrown away. There is no possibility of improving such a building. Like the Hospital, it is badly situated ; and to schools as well as hospitals, a good situation is essential. The physical training of our schoolboys is a matter of too much importance to be overlooked. In the present case, it seems to have been deliberately overlooked. There is no convenience for physical exercise outside the school ; and there is no convenience for domestic comfort inside it. The Provincial Council must look to it during the next session. Whatever the expense may be, a new High School and a new Hospital are indispensable. Education and Charity are two branches of social administration which admit of no neglect : their claims upon the State are at all times imperative.