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on the old
Sibe ?
X
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used as a University site. Further the buildings already are showing signs of age. Some of them are not well constructed, and few are well designed. The inadequacy of laboratories has been, for years, in the minds of the administrative authorities of In the Main Building the University. work is difficult to organize because there are so few class rooms large enough to hold a sufficient number of students. The Hostels Staff are comfortable and well designed. houses are moderately satisfactory but have neither the spaciousness of the older houses in the town nor the comforts of the newer. (iv) We believe that it is against public economy that the University should continue to occupy a site that, through the development of Victoria, has become so valuable and that it would be in the interest of the orderly development of the town that the University should be moved as soon as possible. For the development of the University a much larger site, further away from the town, yet near a hospital suitable for teaching, is needed, and for the convenience of the fraction of students who live in their own homes, it must have adequate communica- tions with the town. It would not be difficult to specify an area that satisfies
these conditions.
(v) We recommend that, if and when a transfer is made, Government should be asked to contribute towards the cost the difference between the value of the old and the new sites. It is believed that this would be a substantial sum.
66. We wish to lay it down clearly that we do not believe that the project of transfer should be allowed to interfere with the building projects already in hand for these reasons:
(i) The building of a block of flats for members of the staff on Hatton Road may be regarded as a sound investment of University funds, even if the University were transferred. (ii) The new science laboratories are required immediately and even if the many difficult
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matters preliminary to transfer to a new site were settled, it would be many years before the change could be completed.
We can look forward to the new laboratories being used for many years.
67. It is suggested also, that the Ho Tung Workshop and the Peel Engineering Laboratory, the only two satisfactory buildings of the kind in possession of the University, should remain in use on the present site, and that the new engineering extension recommended elsewhere might well be on that site, which is outside the original Univer- sity area. There would then be a centre for practical engineering teaching, somewhat removed from the transferred University buildings, but not so far removed as to limit their usefulness.
172