OTAGO UNIVERSITY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 128, 23 February 1921, Page 6

OTAGO UNIVERSITY

REQUESTS FOR GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin,' February 22. The pressing needs of the University Of Otago in the direction of financial assistance and extensions to the Medical ■ School and Dental School were brought ■under the notice of the Hon. C. J. Barr to-day by a deputation from the University Council. Sir John Roberts, Vice-Chancellor, first asked ilhat a number of donations which had been made to the university, totalling about should be sub- ' eidised to the extent of pound for pound by the Government. He further suggested that a friendly suit, should be instituted to determine whether annual donations' of A 22500 from tho Presbyterian Church Board of Property should be subsidised to the same extent. Dr. Lindo Ferguson, on behalf of rhe ' Medical School,. urged upon the. Minister the urgent need for providing increased accommodation at the school ■ where there were at present some 3.i0 students, and where every department was badly ' overcrowded. In addition the school was greatly understaffed and the teachers they had were all seriously underpaid as compared with other ■places. In round figures the Medical School cost about .£20,000 a year and another -£5OOO 'a year was required from the Government as a grant towards its n^he P Minister, in reply, eaid ilhat a subsidy on donations and bequests would be paid, probably at an early date. At the same time he remarked that the generosity of the people of Dunedin to their ■university was becoming somewhat emBorrassing do the Minister of Finance, and the Act might have to be -amended He wished that the same conditions obtained in the north, and did not see how other centres could object to assistance being given fio Otago when the ■people here showed so much vnllingness to help themselves. With regard to the Church Board donations he was quite in favour of the proposal for the institution' of a friendly determining suit. 'As for the Medical School, the Government would help it! to the -fullest extent of its power, but he did not Cabinet could approve more tl,an j e - 5 in say, three different instalments for • present additions. The .Minister added ' that hi proposed-to visit Otago at early date to go fully into the whole matter on the spot-