TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTIVES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12584, 23 January 1905, Page 3

TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTIVES.

~ , OPEN AIR AT WAIMATE. ;'.; " A member of. the. "Herald" staff • visited the Waimate Hospital ,on: Saturday. morning ;in company, with' Mr. Sinclair,: chairman of the Hospital: Trustees, wba-kindly.' gave up an hour of hk business ijme.-.tQ.Jhow. pur: representative what is being done in /the way of open - air treatmenfcpf "jepnsumptiyes at the hospita}. • ---•- : ")- . The Waimate Hospital Is a substantial building, erected ahout mjcUway along,the eastern side of a blbck of land containing 14 acres, which js..JM>unded by roads -on" three sides, and by. .the wide .bed of Waimate Creek on the foiirth. The creek* next' the'hospital is now - overgrown with tall, broom, but this is .no great security : that the torrential stream will not some; day assert jits right to run again where the broom now forms a thicket. . ■■■■

There are' two consumptive patients at present undergoing-the ppgnah" treatment,/ bbth of ; them yogng'ineb,' one of them thespiral a /.farmer at. Moryen, the other a.i North Islander, 1 who - became ill .in ,the neighbourhood ..of Waimate, not knowing what was the. matter with him, and. going to the hospital was found to. be fromHuberculosis. One pf these young men? occupies a patent tent, or rather a framed., canvas hut; the other a "Bickerton" hut, a framing: covered u sort .of tarred paper. The tent is square and of good' height, and open air is secured.by having'the front, facing the nyth, wide open, uns' less a strong wind blows in," and if the end is closed for that reason, several pieces of tHin material' like cheese-cloth/- inserted in the 'along the.^tßß-,and. bottom of the 'walls', permit of the entrance of fresh air,' and there are also' some small free apertures jn the roof. The paper :;hut is more-certainly, ventilated, when; scrim canvas front is closed, by the upper half of each low gable being entirely open. Tent and hut have board floors, raised some inches above the ground, which" is a dry shingly soil.. The patient's bed is placed .across the back.

The young" men appeared, to be perfectly cheerful, and stated that they'are quite qpjnfortable in.the shelters; There are also on the ground.three other shelters, one a square single bed tent, another- a doubleone, which by removal of the .partition makes a good sitting room "for patients}., the third is a shelter that was made for a" Waimate lady who died some years ago/ The five shelters make a conspicuous row;about 60 or 'BO yards from the hospital,, and the consplcuousness is not .that"..of beauty. Mr .Sinclair declined to express any opinion, on pr.pjj.os^l-which is to be laid before the trustees/by. a deputation, from the South Canterbury Hospital. Board/pn, Thursday nexWth'at the Waimate;• Trustees, should undertak* to provide- for-'the treaty ment of. all consumptive cases South' Canterbury. He is a thorough, believer in the open air system, and he.adjnitted that there is plenty of room in the grounds for "any necessary erections, and/ that there would'b.B. no danger to ■• the" community' from the establishment of a consuinptive annex, there. ( But hi? yea or nay will depend upon the nature of the proposal'to be made. ~'.. 'Mr Atiwill, another trustee who^'takes'a very great interest in the matter, told our ; representative, that he was most anxious to have provision made for all consumptive ease.? arising in the county »n.d borough,

but was opposed to making Waimate ? dumping ground for the whole district At the same time, he added, it was chiefly a question of numbers with him If theie were not many, he would not object to the whole of tliem being treated there Objection might be taken to -the site, on the ground that there is no shelter from -strong winds It was, however, suggested that if an annex is to be established, trees could be planted to provide the needed shelter by and by, and in the metntime an artificial temporary breakwind of some sort might be run round the buildings The trustees have acquired -the light to use some acres of broom covered riverbed, above mentioned, and this might be utilised for walks by forming paths among the high broom. The prettv and weU planted Vic tona Park is close to the hospital grounds, but the public would, no doubt, object to this popular lesort being used by the con sumpjives as a piomenade