CAT among the kiwis.

Abstract

I suppose beginnings were recognisable in medicine and medical education as long ago as 1875, when a poor frustrated Coughtrey, appointed first professor of anatomy and physiology and trying to establish a medical school in University of Otago, was battling with university council. In despair of his non-progress, in a relationship that was always fragile, he wrote that if establishment of a medical school in Dunedin were prosecuted with expedition then Canterbury would forestall Otago. At about same time dissolution of Provincial Government in New Zealand yielded to formation of Central Colonial Government. Of many political permutations and gyrations that provincialists in Otago examined to try to preserve its affluence for themselves, desperation allowed proposal of an alliance with province of Canterbury. This was archly rebuffed by latter, provincial governments were abolished, and New Zealand became one nation. Although so in government, it has been so in spirit, and divisive parochialism, engendered of fierce local pride that persists, was recognised by minister when he reflected that his decisions of February would not please parochial areas. Nowhere are manifestations stronger than between Otago (often allied with Southland, for they are of common stock) and Canterbury, immediately to their north in South Island. Just how much these rivalries stem from sectarian origins of English Anglican Christcburch and Scottish Presbyterian Dunedin, where Anglicans used to be overtly referred to as the little enemy in community, is difficult to say?probably no greater than Plaid Cymru and Scottish Nationalist Party influences in Britain today, I suppose. The fierce calvinistic hold of Presbyterians on Dunedin began to break when gold was found in avaricious quantities in early 1860s, attracting a diluting influx of fortune seekers. In that decade city's population multiplied sixfold, Dunedin became business hub of New Zealand, and into this affluent town and busy port medical school was born in 1875. Like others before it, however, gold boom was short lived, rich as it may have been. Indeed, 1880s saw a severe economic depression in New Zealand. The twentieth century ushered in quietening of south. The centre of population moved, and today city of Christchurch on Canterbury plain has twice population of Dunedin. For specialist services Canterbury hospital authority drains a population over half as great again as that of Otago authority. Despite these changes, home medical school of preclinical and clinical