CLOSING TO-DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 302, 22 December 1945, Page 5

CLOSING TO-DAY

CHATEAU AS MENTAL HOSPITAL TRANSFER OF PATIENTS The Chateau Tongariro will not be used as a mental hospital after to-day, arrangements for the immediate trauefer of patients and staff, more, than 200 in number, to the Ravens* tiiorpe Flonic, near Auckland, having Lc.h completed. Early this week it was known for certain that the Chateau would definitely be closed down as a mental hospital in the near future. Little information was then available, however, about ihe pending change. Inmates of both the Chateau and the 1 mental hospital at Wainakei will be | accommodated at Ravensthorpe, a 300bed ex-military convalescent home near Bombay, 25 miles south of Auckland, which it is understood has been purchased outrignt by the Mental Hospitals Department. A Press Association message received from Auckland last night stated that the water supply of the Chateau

has been so fouled with ash from Mount Ruapehu that all mental hospital patients at the Chateau are being evacuated to Ravensthorpe. A special train will leave Waiouru early this morning with about 180 female patients and 30 members of the staff. It is due at Drury shortly before 6 p.m. and patients will then be taken to Ravensthorpe by road Preparations for transferring the Chateau patients to Ravensthorpe have been in hand for some time and to that extent the move is a routine matter. However, it has been hastened by serious deterioration in the quality of the water. This is drawn from a stream fed bv Ruapehu’s snow slopes. Recentlv it has been polluted by considerable deposits of ash which have been blown off th? mountain. Ash has also interfered seriously with the efficiency nf tho Chateau’s powerhouse and has made other conditions increasingly unpleasant and inconvenient.

Although the last of the military patients at Ravensthorpe had already’ been sent to other hospitals, members of the staff were still in residence when a decision was made to accelerate the transfer of the mental hospital patients. Other necessary details had also to be completed. However, the Army adjusted its arrangements tn th? new circumstances ana everything is expected to be in readiness for the Chateau patients whes thev arrive. Thn Chateau has been in use as a mental hospital since October 1942. It was taken over for the accommodation of female patients after the Porirua Mental Hospital had been damaged bv earthauak? a short time before. Ravensthorpe has been a service convalescent depot for about three years. It consists of a number or well built and comfortable wooden buildings on a pleasantly-wooded site at the foot of the Bombay Hills on the Great South Road, a few miles beyond Drury.