AUCKLAND NOTES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11506, 12 February 1903, Page 5

AUCKLAND NOTES.

INFECTIOUS DISEASES HOSPIfAL

DISPUTE.

THE NEW BATES AT ROTORUA.

(SI'feCIAL TO "THE TBESS.") AUCKLAND, February 11.

Considerable comment has been caused by the action of the Auckland, Hospital BoarS. in closing the hospital to all infectious cases, except typhoid. Some time ago the Board, feeling tbe pinch oi financial difficulties, resolved to decline to accept" cases of infectious disease. The responsibility for the treatment of such cases resting, by the Public Health Act, on the City Council and suburban local authorities, they placed the position before Sir J. G. Ward, and the Minister HeM that until the infectious diseases hospital now in contemplation has been erected and opened the responsibility for the treat-' ment of such, cases still rested on the Board. A suggestion was made that the Government should advance the Board £1600 to enable them to treat infectious cases temporarily in the old plague On the understanding thattnis money was to be advanced, the Board prepared the old plague hospital for its treatment of such oases, furnished it, and erected a number of tents for the accommodation of the nurses who (had charge of the patients suffering from infectious disease. Then came the crisis in the Hospital Board's financial position, and some £450 having been expended on the furnishing on the old plague hospital, the Board applied for a portion of the advance they had relied on. Some ten days after a reply came from Sir J. G. Ward, asking for information as to the amount expended. This information woe furnished, and when the Board met on Monday of last week, no further message having been received from Sir J. G. Ward, it was resolved—"That in the event of the Government not supplying us with funds within eight daye we shall be reluctantly, compelled to close the infectious diseases hospital for want of funds." A copy of this resolution was forwarded to Sir J. G. Ward, but no reply of any kind has been received, and instructions were given yesterday to the senior medical officer at*the hospiital to carry the resolution into effect, and refuse from this date to accept infectious cases. In accordance with these instructions the tents have been taken down, and the old plague hospital dosed. There were only six scarlatina patients in the hospital yesterday, and these being convalescent were transferred to the small isolation hospitaJ, and are expected to be fit for dtecharge in seven or eight days. The position is tihat from to-day no case of en infectious disease, except typhoid 1 (for which there is good aocommoda/tion at the hospital) will be admitted by the hospital authorities, and the city iis absolufte-y without any provision for the treatment of euoh cases.

The new bathe whiah are being erected at Rotorua by the Gov&rninent at an estimated cost of between £17,000 and £18,000 will be tho finest and most complete in the Southern Hemisphere. They will be eituated in the Sanatorium ground on a vacant port-ion to the south of the Queen's Drive and close to the mangin of the lafco. The bulddng, which will be constructed of wood, will be in the old English style of timber architecture of tiie fourteenftih and fifteenth centuries. It will have a length of 316 ft, and will be surrounded with a spacious. verandaii, having an area of 360 ft. The centre of the building will be t■• •> >;oreyt high, and on either side will tun spacious corridors giving access to the various Oathe, «Kih corridor termina/ting in a wing. The maim entrance will be approached by a carriage drive. On a level with the ground floor to tho right- and left of the main entrance porch w.ll be verandahs 12 fee-t wide* terminating at the flank walls of tie north and south winge. Passing through large double folding doors with panels o-f 'etched Bnitish glass a. fine and artistically decorated vestibule, 4Ort by 68ft, will be entered. On the right will be a waiting room, adjoining the doctor's consulting room, and on the lefit » ticket office and a bar where thermal waiters for da-inking will be »irppsied. In the centre of tho vestibule it ie proposed to fix an ornate fountain, beyond which tb«re will be an open corridor, terminated by a ih&ndeome bay window., glassed with stained glass. Rising from the vestibule will be two spacious stairs leading to the upper floor, where there will be rooms -which can be need as waiting and reading rooms, etc., aj»d from tie window* of whioh fine views of the grounds and park and of the lake will b© obtained. There will be over sixty bathe in the building, including, in addition to the ueual baths, electric bathe, mud bathe, vapour bathe, hot air baths, and sun baths. There -wIH also be rooms fitfced with tiJve massage couch. For the mud I bathe the 3iot mud will be conveyed direct from the ground in email trucks ranala' on tram linee into the various bathrooms!