DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14265, 16 January 1920, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

For months now the nursing staff of the Waikato Hosflccommodation pilal has had to at the suffer great inconHospital. veniences as the result of short accommodation, and the complaints entered by Mr. Gower, Hie new SurgeonSuperintendent, at yesterday’s meeting of the Hospital Board are only a repetition of the representations made from time to time by Dr. Douglas. Ton nurses have for months been sleeping in a lent in the grounds, and on rainy nights it has not been a n uncommon thing for the occupants to be compelled to get off their stretchers and remove them to different parts of the marquee away from the dripping moisture, while on occasions it lias been necessary for them to escape through the rain'in the dark from beneath a heap of fallen canvas. This kind of thing should not oolain in a modern institution such as this is, and the Board’s only possible excuse for it can be financial stringency 0 through the war. which appears to be the home for sheeting all delinquencies. However, the matter has now been brought forcibly to the notice of the governing body, who will have to r.enousiv con-

sider erecting a new nurses’, home with extensive accommodation. Nobody, of course, anticipated when the 'present home was built that the hospital was going to expand to the extent it has, and tiie home was considered amply large to accommodate future demands. Still something must be ddne, and done quickly, for the work of a nurse is exceedingly trying, and her personal cornfort, after hours, should certainly be attended to.

The visit of the New South Wales j Slate Orchestra Development New Zealand is givof ing an impetus to j Musical Life, the musical life of; the community, and is arousing an enthusiastic desire for the. establishment of a Stale Conserve lorium in the Dominion, so that latent talent may be fully developed and a taste for.the best in music fostered. It is recognised that tiie hour has come when more attention should be devoted to art, which as an educational factor can not ho over-rated, and, as in" Australia, should he considered an ordinary subject of education. At the Sydney Conservalorium there are over 1000 students, and the whole of the people of the;Slate benefit by scholarships and the development and encouragement of art. Instead of being a luxury, the Conservalorium is a necessity of life. The Conservalorium, altnough subsidised by the Government, is one of the few Government concerns that pays, proving, despite the sneers of the cj-nical materialist, that art does pay pccuniarly, quite apart from its value educationally. What Is wanted in New Zealand is a Conservalorium and an orchestra similar to the New South Wales organisation which enthralled local music-lovers last week. If people will take a proper interest in music and seize the opportunity now presented to them, the art will go ahead by leaps and bounds, and a repetition of the experience of New Soutli Wales will be ours.