NEW NAME FOR HOSPITAL

Southland Times, Issue 24828, 21 August 1942, Page 4

NEW NAME FOR HOSPITAL

REIGN OF VICTORIA COMMEMORATED

The Dee street hospital will in future be called the Queen Victoria Hospital. This decision was reached by the Southland Hospital Board yesterday on the recommendation of Mr T. Pryde, who stated that the largest part of the building was erected to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria. Mr Pryde said a stone commemorating the jubilee was laid by the Governor of New Zealand, the Earl of Ranfurly, on June 9, 1898. It bore the names of Messrs J. E. Watson (chairman), A. Dunlop, A. Bain, T. Findlay, A. Carmichael, W. R. Riddell and J. Stead (hospital trustees), J. A. Hanan (Mayor of Invercargill), J. E. Gunn, (secretary), Mackenzie and Wilson (architects), and William Smith (builder). It stated that the funds had been subscribed by the people of Southland to commemorate the record reign of Queen Victoria. WORK OF PIONEERS Mr Pryde said it seemed appropriate to have this recognition of the fine work of the old pioneers in carrying on a hospital for the sick and those needing hospital attention at a time when there was no hospital board or local bodies to find money for hospitals. The people of those days had to put their hands into their pockets to raise money by private means. The trustees themselves had to become security to the bank to enable the institution to operate. In suggesting the adoption of the name Victoria Hospital, Mr Pryde said an arrangement had been made with the Invercargill Borough Council many years ago to give the hospital trustees that portion lying to the north of the hospital property of the old district road running from the contemplated railway to Elies road. The trustees of the Thomson estate gave a new site for the road from Dee street to the railway, that being the reason why the two sections of Victoria Avenue were not in alignment. The building of a nurses’ home for the staff of the hospital was made possible by a handsome donation from the Invercargill Total Abstinence Society, which was founded by the late Mr D. Bonthorn. Later in 1908 the public showed its continued interest in the work of the hospital by subscribing funds for the erection of the surgical block.

The board agreed to Mr Pryde’s suggestion and the institution will in future be known as the Queen Victoria Hospital.