NEW CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24910, 25 June 1946, Page 4

NEW CHAIR OF OBSTETRICS

AUCKLAND SCHEME EXPLAINED

COMMITTEE FORMED IN CHRISTCHURCH

The scheme to endow a chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at the new hospital in Auckland was not an attempt to provide a medical school in that city, said Mr J. T. R. Oliver at a public meeting in Christchurch l?st evening, when he outlined the work that had been done to raise £lOO,OOO for the endowment of the chair. Mr Oliver, who is honorary organiser for the Auckland Businessmen’s Committee, which has conducted the* appeal, said that he had visited Dunedin and explained the scheme. He had expected opposition from the city with the medical school, and that opSosition had materialised. However, e had been supported by Dr. J. B. Dawson, Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Otago, and it was ,now realised in Dunedin that there was nothing sinister in the appeal. After referring to the money that had been raised in various centres of the North Island, Me Oliver said that Csftiterbury already had a credit of more than £2OOO. A Labour organisation in Auckland had asked the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) to devote some funds fn>m the receipts of an art union to the campaign, and the Minister had done so. Of the amount allocated, £l9OO. had been credited to Canterbury. A Christchurch businessman had also given £2OO.

“I feel that we should do everything to keep the university system away from Government control, and it is important that the money should be contributed by the public,” said Mr Oliver. “We are trying to link the chair with the Royal Gynaecological College, so that we can grant degrees, but if the Government was associated with the chair that would not be possible.”

The meeting, which was attended by 35 persons, decided to support the campaign, and the following committee was elected to organise an appeal in Christchurch:—the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews), Drs. M. G. Louisson, L. C. L. Averill, A. M. Hartnell, and D. Anderson, Messrs J. L. Hay, F. A. L. Cookson. E. A. Adams. J. Jackson. L. R. Webley, K. Hadfield, F. H. Hawker, and A. B. Edwardes.