A SIX-WEEKS' CONTRACT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 901, 22 August 1910, Page 8

A SIX-WEEKS' CONTRACT.

. '", ———i . > THE ERECTION OF THE OLD , ■■.■;',■' CHILDREN'S AVARD. . : •■ The wooden structure, which has for a long time -how served as the .children's ward. to. the /Wellington Hbspi/tal; and about which hard things have been said during the past fortnight, ■ can at least boast 1 of lengthy and honest service in view of the conditions under which it was erected.' It was built to the order' of the trustees twenty years agoj when Mr. Herbert Gaby (now resident in England) was secretary of that body, and. owes its existence to, an outbreak of, scarlatina, or scarlet fever among children in lc}So. ' As the'/hospital'became'crowded with '■ cases, and the fever looked like..devel-. oping into a mild epidemic, the trus-'. tees decided to run up a wooden structure as -'quickly.,as possible to nioet the emergency "until a ■more permanent structure could be erected. ■> The contractor, was Mr. ■ ■ Campbell Colqu- • houn, and, such .-was. the .;• urgency, of' the case, that the contract- time_ for; the erection of the building, was;limit- ' ed to six weeks, with,a £3 a day penalty over that, time.' Mr.-Colquhoun, was able to finish the job in time.' Andthis building; has .served, as .tbe... chil., dren's! ward ever since.;, , . . ;'.