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PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND IMPROVElVfENTS. 253
so liberal that £347. 3s. 6d. came in. Of that sum Mr. Oswald Smith gave £100. The committee sold out the Consols standing in the Trustees' names to the extent of £364. 4s. 6d., making a total of £711. 8s., as compared with £700 which the premises cost. Subsequently dividends were received out of the bank's assets amounting to £116. lis. 4d., and that, added to the result of the special appeal, meant a total loss owing to the bank failure of only £9. 10s. 2d. From 1892 to 1899 the hospital went on quietly with its work. In the latter year, at the annual meeting, the following resolution was moved by Mr. C. Wright Edwards (one of the medical staff, who then had Dr. Poynder's practice) and unanimously adopted:—"That the meeting recommends the committee to take steps to consider the advisability of making improvements and alterations in the hospital accommodation." A sub-committee was appointed to seek an available site for a new hospital, with the result that a piece of land in Imberhorne Lane was purchased for £275.
The endeavours to erect a hospital on that site were much quickened by Mr. T. H. W. Buckley's liberal offer of a sum of £250 towards the building in memory of his mother. In July, 1900, the committee endeavoured to get out plans for a building to cost not more than £3,000, but after making most careful inquiries and visiting other hospitals the sub-committee found that at least £4,200 would be required to erect a hospital replete with necessary modern requirements. An appeal was accordingly issued on January 8th, 1901. Eight days later it came to the knowledge of the Secretary that the Holiday Home in Queen's Road was likely to come into the market. This place was erected, and for some years carried on, as a coffee tavern, known as the Elephant's Head, after the crest of Mr. O. A. Smith. Then it was let to the Ragged School Union, and by that body opened as a holiday home on September 2nd, 1885.
Certain communications passed between Mr. Oswald Smith, the owner of that property, and the Rev. C. C. Woodland (chairman of the Hospital Committee), with |
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