HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 July 1942, Page 2

HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL.

may be the best method of dealing with the ' problems involved, it is clear that the state of affairs disclosed at the meeting of the Wairarapa Hospital Board yesterday is very serious as it affects both the treatment of hospital patients—civil and military—and the welfare of the children of the Lansdowne School, which the board is proposing to take over, perhaps for a period of six weeks. It was stated when hospital equipment was installed at the Lansdowne School some months ago that the establishment would be taken over by the Hospital Board only in an extreme emergency. It now seems possible, however, that the school may be only a part of the additional accommodation needed for hospital purposes. Any considerable increase in the present number of patients presumably would upset hopes of returning the school to its normal use at the beginning of next term. While the gravity of the hospital position is not to be minimised, the outlook opened for the Lansdowne School and its pupils is also serious and calls for prompt and practical attention. It has been pointed out by one of the local members of the Wellington. Education Board*, Mr W. R. Nicol, that the alternative accommodation—in the Parish Hall and at the Wairarapa College—which it had been intended to make available for the Lansdowne School if it were evicted from its own buildings, is no longer available. If it should be found impossible, in the present emergency, to avoid'upsetting the work of the school, action at least should be taken with a view to safeguarding to the utmost extent possible against similar upsets in (future: