OUR ONLY DENTAL SCHOOL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 414, 25 January 1909, Page 9

OUR ONLY DENTAL SCHOOL.

:V ■'. ■ MORE. MONEY ASKED FOR; \, f i ■'' V MR. FOWLDSNOT FAVOURABLE; V ■; ' V.'..(ei TELEGEAPH—P4E33 :ab3JCIATIOS.J ' ' :,: . ■ ; 4 ; '::'■'.■■-. ; i ;, ; 'i';. ; ; bunodin, v January- : 24; fk ''■■k deputation waited on the.Hon. 6. '.Fowlds yesterday '. asking jfor Goyernmerit jLSsista'iVce,: to: enable .additions to be made to. the Dun-" edin Dental School.. Parliament'has already' voted £2100, arid the deputation wished the; Minister to consent to a slight modification' in.Vspecific items on the original estimate and to approve plans for additions that would cbst £950, instead of £450Mf this were , done., the amount by which the £2100 grant would be exceeded would be £378. The; University Council proposed to. spend £1528' on. equipment; and that would onlyleave them £572. to spend, on buildings estimated . to. cost £950. It was' pointed out that there had been: .a great inrush of. patient?—much 1 greater than the council had -anticipated— so much so that the honorary staff had to be doubled. Much more accommodation;, wasthe'refbre needed.; There were ten students at present, exclusive of those coming in .under the, new arrangement:., v ' :'',•.; '.

' The Minister said ..that: he did:;not thint that'it was, the duty, of the State-to provide additional extension of the building - merely •- for the comparatively : freo""'treatm'eit/^bf '. patients or treatment- at reduced •charges; If that wefe: done in. Dunedin:it should- be: part of; a national scheme for- providing such facilities all over the Dominion..; Continuing, he said: "I got the. last £2100 voted because I-felt confident, from representations made, that jt ; would complete the: equipment and inake the. school practically equal to anything of the'kind in the world., I strained a point to get that done, so that there,should be no' complaint. -Extension certainly, is not ■ required for students, and the prime object of the school is training of students."..

Mr. Shand pointed out that the number of..students was expected to increase yearly.' In'the course of three or four, .years, there : would be three or four times the present number of students. . ... . .. Mr. Fowlds replied that he would J take the amended plans and go over the council's hew proposals. He concluded by suggesting that the council would find it. more profitable to reduce the fees, and so obtain.a larger numberof students, for it seemed to him that a number,of students, who otherwise might go in for a course of dentistry, confined themselves to themedical course because fees for the,dental course were so much higher than for the medical.'- ■-.■ :■' ■ : -, ■