QUARANTINE ISLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 3198, 21 May 1873, Page 2

QUARANTINE ISLAND.

The arrangements at the quarantine Station have undergone a complete transformation, and instead of the buildings being a disgrace to the Province, they arc now, through- the erection of new premises, all that can be desired for sanitary purposes. They would have been completed much earlier, had not the work been interrupted by the necessity for using the island for quarantine purposes, and the consequent interruption to work until the passengers were admitted to pratique. The new buildings were designed by the Colonial Architect, Mr Clayton, and contracted forby MrGoodfellow, and carried out under the inspection of Mr D. Miller, jun. The essentials for buildings at a quarantine station are that they shall combine the greatest amount of comfortable lodging accommodation, with the best possible arrangements for preserving and restoring health. It is necessary, also, that there should be as wide a space as is necessary between the sick and the healthy passengers, so that there may be no spreading of sickness through contagion. The surface area of the Quarantine Island about fifty acres—is amply sufficient for these requirements. Its position,, too, is favorable. Placed in what may be considered a gorge between two chains of hills, the periodical ebb and flow of the tide insure a constant movement in the air. There is always a draught one way or the other ; while the height above the sea level insures the habitations against miasma, and the inequalities of the surface protect the hospital, at least, from damage through heavy gales. 1 he dormitories, kitchen, and large ball, or, as it is called, the dining-room, are placed on rising ground, just below the site of the old barrack*. The domitories form a long line broken by the kitchen, wash-house, and pantry, extending on the north-west and southeast sides of them, fifty-six feet each way At right angles to this line of buildings is the dining or day room, a magnificent apartment fifty feet in length and twenty-one feet wide. It is lofty and well-ventilated, with a fire-place in the centre capable of thoroughly warming it. On each side are eight lofty windows, and one at the end, so that the light is ample, and it commands a view of the beautiful scenery of the Port in three directions, and is a cheerful airy room. On each side are ranged tables, around which families or friends may assemble—not rough unsightly benches,' out well-finished though plain, handsome tables, that indicate to the occupants that they have reached a land where men understand and practise the arts of civilised life. The floor and linings are well and carefully finished, and the ceiling is made of lining boards, grooved, tongued, and beaded. It is a room calculated to suggest cheerful amusement: large enough for a concert or a dance, if, under such circumstances, the prisoners, co;; fined on suspicion of ill-health, could bring themselves to indulge in such health-conducing engagements. Connected with this room by a short passage is the kitchen. This room is twenty feet by twenty-four feet long. In the centre of it are two Leamington ranges, placed back to back, together capable of cooking for 250 or 300 people, so as to have their meals at the same time. It might be imagined that two fireplaces, with heat radiating from so large a surface would cause the place to be unbearably hot; but instead of this, so perfect is the system of ventilation that it was only pleasantly warm. We need not dfc'cribe the Leamington range with its numberless boilers, ovens, and contrivances for cooking a variety of dishes in a variety of ways, simultaneously. But these stoves are made useful in other ways. A constant supply of hot water is made useful for the baths and lavatories attached to the dormitories ; and this is secured without risk by a very simple arrangement introduced, and, we are informed, improved by Messrs A. and T. Burt. We occasionally hear of kitchen boilers bursting through neglect to supply them with sufficient water. No such accident can occur there. Cold water is conveyed to the boiler from a cistern by a pipe which enters it below, and as the water becomes heated it rises to the upper part of it, and is conveyed to different parts of the establishment by pipes. No taps are used, the supply is constant, and should there be so much steam generated as to render it necessary to get rid of the surplus, it is at liberty to “ blow off” of its own accord No safety valve is necessary, and the escape pipe is always open. Interposed between the two compartments, fitted up as dormitories, are the scullery and pantry. The scullery is fitted up with a shallow trough, lined with lead, supplied with hot and cold water by pipes connected wjth the boiler and cistern. By drawing a plug, the dirty water can be discharged into a drain fitted with stench traps, so that all the effluvium is at once got rid of. The pantry is a capacious room fitted with shelves, completely shaded from the sun by the adjacent buildings, and kept cool and sweet by thorough ventilation. On each side of the scullery and pantry arc the dormitories. These’are two buildings, each fifty-six feet long, one of which is desigued as a "sleeping apartment for married persons and families, and the other for unmarried women. Each building has two floors, and on each floor are compartments containing comfortable berths The rooms are thirty feet wide ; down the centre of each is au ample passage, and on either side are the sleeping berths divided into small rooms, ‘lofty; and the lower floor admirably ventilated. We do not think the upper floors quite so well arranged in that respect, although they are far in advance of the generality of sleeping rooms in Colonial hpuses. The defect is, that a separate arrangement for the admission of air similar to that provided for the lower floor has not been made. Access can be gained to these dormitories from the diuing or day room, or from doors at each end, im-

mediately contiguous j to the latter of which are private rooms for the matron or lady in charge. lean-tos are attached to each building, crossing the extreme entrances, in which, both upstairs and down, are hot and cold baths, closets, and lavatories. The water is collected from the roofs of the buildings, from which an ample supply is obtained and stored in cisterns and irontanks, while an underground drain is pro vided for the overflow and Waste water from ,he baths, closets, and lavatories, having syphon bends and stench traps, and discharging into the sea. At a distance of 150 or 200 yards to the southward, over the crown of the hill, in a nook sheltered from both north and south winds—we may say from every wind—but sufficiently near the eastern channel to have the benefit of the tidal influence to secure constant change of air, is the hospital. Great attention has been given to adapting this brfilding to sanitary purposes. There are two very lofty rooms, each having an area of twenty by twenty-two feet, separated by an entrance passage ten feet wide. The rooms front to the north west, and will therefore never, even in the longest days, have the glare and heat of a morning and noonday sun thrown into the sick wards Each room has a fireplace in it, and is oompletely and thoroughly ventilated without sensible draught. We may here conveniently give a sketch of the mode of ventilation adopted ; the same principle, however modified to suit circumstances, being carried into effect in every building. The ground floor of each building is raised above the surface on which it stands some two feet or two feet six inches. Below the flooring joists, at convenient distances, let into the outer walls, are large iron gratings. We did not ascertain their measurement, but should judge that they were about two feet six inches in length by eight inches wide. Free admission of air is therefore secured below the floors. In order to admit it into the rooms, similar gratings are placed in the floors ; and to avoid the possibility of the action of the wind, supposing it to blow directly into the outer openings, they are not directly over them, but at some distance from them, so that the air rises through thorn quietly, without any perceptible draught. This is further secured by the openings being ample. The quantity admitted can bo regulated by slide valves, inserted in the gratings on the floors. Having thus provided, means fop tbo free admission of fresh air, the next object has been to get rid of the vitiated air—that which has been deprived of its oxygen through being breathed, or through feeding candles or lamps. Our rough and imperfect way in our dwelling houses is to allow it, if it will, to find its way up the chimney, out at the door, or back again into our lungs, afflicting os with the fidgets, lassitude, or headache. The Government Architect has adopted a wiser plan. Knowing that heated air risCl, and that cool, fresh air will press it out of the room at the ceiling, so long as the temperature is maintained sufficiently high at an opening there, he has provided what we may term, in raining phraseology, an “ upcast shaft,” considerably less in area than the fresh air openings below : so that the upward and outward rush may not be checked by contact with cool air flowing downwards, A small capped turret, with louvre boards for shooting off the rain, and preventing a downward current into the apartment, completes this simple and effective arrangement, which may be adopted with great advantage .to health, in every house in the Colony. On the south-east side of the hospital is the nurses’ room - a nice airy apartment giving immediate access to the sick wards, attached to each of which, conveniently situated in the angles at the junction of the passage leading to the nurses’ room with the sick wards, are closets, baths, and lavatories. About seventy yards to the north-east of the main building is a very snug cottage for the residence of the keeper of the Mr Dougall. We are glad to find that humane and separate provision has been made for a family that formerly was exposed, not only to isolation from society, but to immediate danger of contagion whenever the quarantine ground was required for sanitary u;e. Even yet the accommodation is not so complete as we think should have been provided, for one of the apartments will be allotted to the doctor on the island, whenever a ship’s passengers are placed iu quarantine. At all events it is a great advance upon past arrangements, for the cottage, though not large, being about 32 x 22, is pleasantly situated with a N.W. aspect overlooking the Bay and shipping in Port Chalmers harbor. The whole of the buildings are of wood : we believe of Colonial timber. They are substantially and well built, with minute attention to neatness ; all the tie beams and scantling of the roofing where seen have been planed y the lining boards are all planed, grooved, tongued, and beaded, and the manner in which Mr Goodfellow has done the work, under the inspection of Mr D. Miller, jun., elicited expressions of satisfaction by his Honor the Superintendent and .the Board and visitors.

One word more about means of access to the island. Mr Dougall, who has now been many years there, has not been idle, but has, by his own labor, constructed a stone jetty, extending a considerable distance into the Bay, which bears his own name, Dougall Bay. Looked at as a work of labor, it is hardly conceivable that this has been effected by one pair of hands. Many of tbs large blocks of stone must hare involved the exertion of considerable strength and ingenuity, in transporting them from the place were they were procured and placing them in their present position. They have been cut out from the rock, put into a boat, conveyed to the jetty, and lifted out again into their present resting places. When we see what Mr Dougall has effected by his unaided efforts, we can realise all that Defoe wrote of “ Hobinson Crusoe” ; for we think even that famous recluse, giant as he is supposed to have been in the adaptation of means to ends, has been equalled by Mr Dougall in his doings on Quarantine Island—only Defoe is not here to narrate them. Ir. order, however, to complete this portion of what he has so well begun, the labor of a dozen prisoners for a week or ten days might be profitably utilised in extending the jetty into deeper watt r, so that easy access may be had to it at all times of the tide. At present, the Peninsula, with her light draught of water, has to lay outside when the tide is out. This trifling cost would add much to the advantages the Island has as a quarantine station. Farther improvements are projected, and it was suggested by a gentleman who has seen most of the lazarettos of Europe that it would be advisable to provide suitable and separate apartments for firstclass passengers, and those who *would be willing to pay for such accommodation. This is customary elsewhere, and is worth taking into consideration. The old buildings still remain, and we should thinfc might be utilised as storehouses for luggage. There is talk of removing them, but we think it would be unwise. They are unfit for human habitation, but may do for storerooms.