H.—l9

10

matrons, £110s. and £1 Bs. per week. The total annual expenditure is about £2,400. The drug-bill seems to me to be too heavy, being £120. The hospital as a whole is badly planned and wrongly placed. Instead of facing the road, it ought to have faced the north. The pathways in front and all around are sadly in need of gravelling. 31st October, 1886.

HOKITIKA. This hospital is beautifully situated on the front of a high terrace overlooking the sea. The grounds are about fifteen acres in extent. A large space in front is laid out with walks and trees, but is not properly looked after; to the left and rear a large garden stretches, a very wilderness of disorderly cultivation. There is only one man to look after this large extent of grounds and garden, and he gets little or no assistance from the patients, while he has to act as messenger besides. The consequence is that the whole surroundings of the building have an untidy appearance. The hospital itself consists of two parallel blocks, with a wide corridor in the middle connecting the two. In the front block, to the right and left of the entrance, are situated the two male wards. The rear block is divided into the female ward to the left, while the right half is occupied by a convalescent ward, at present empty, and the operation-room, which is suitably furnished and well lighted. At right angles to the rear block, and separated by a passage, stands a smaller building, containing the kitchen and a good-sized store. The three wards—two male and one female ward— are large —51ft. by 25ft.—and lofty, airy, and well lighted and ventilated. In each there is a double central fireplace. {The windows are large sash-windows, with holland blinds. The walls and ceilings of all the wards are sadty in need of painting. The ceilings especially look as if they were made of old materials, which had been forgotten by the painter. The appearance of the whole is bare and cheerless ; and yet a little judicious expenditure in paint and a few pictures would complotly remove this effect, and transform them into really admirable wards. The male wards are rendered still more depressing by the inevitable neglect of details, caused by having only one man in charge of these two large wards, each containing seventeen beds, eleven of them occupied in each. Besides this, the same man has to look after the boiler which supplies hot water for the baths. The beds are all iron, with thin flimsy straw paillasses and straw mattrasses, though in each ward there are a few hair mattrasses for special cases. All the bedding is clean, and each bed has enough for warmth. The food is good, abundant, and well cooked. I made personal inquiries of all the patients, and heard not a single complaint. AH expressed themselves satisfied with the attentions of the doctor and his staff. In fact, in all essentials this hospital is well managed, and the patients are contented. I found abundant evidence that Dr. King is most attentive to his duties, and the overtaxed wardsman, Sutor, is a prime favourite. The female ward is kept very clean and tidy, but looks cheerless at the best. An assistant wardsman, whose services for part of the day might be devoted to the grounds and garden, would be a great improvement. The male wards could then be kept nea.tly, and the neglected appearance of the grounds and garden put an end to. I have suggested to Dr. King and the Chairman that a large part of the cost of this could be met by reducing the expenditure on medical comforts, which averages about £16 a month. All the stores are got by contract, and are of good quality. The steward manages the dispensary, and has, under the doctor, the general charge of the hospital. He is quartered in a small i*oom off the dispensary. The salaries of the various officers are as follows : Doctor, £300; steward, £156; wardsman, £150; gardener and messenger, £80 ; cook, £80; female nurse, £78; laundress, £65 ; housemaid, £52. The watersupply is all collected from the roof in tanks, and is found to be sufficient. There is a hand-pump and a large number of buckets for use in case of fire, as also suitable ladders. At the far end of each ward are suitable closets and lavatories. The whole sewage of the institution is conducted into a gully. All the pipes from the interior of the building fall into open receptacles, so that no gases can find their way inside. For patients able to walk there are suitable closets behind. There is a very good system of book-keeping in use, and the case-books in particular are very carefully kept, giving a complete record of the treatment of each case. There is a fair supply of surgical instruments, which are carefully kept. There are no restrictions on the admission of patients, and no inconvenience results. The clergy of the town are assiduous in their attention to the sick. The supply of books and papers is rather meagre. 28th October, 1886.

INVEEGAEGILL. This hospital is situated at the north end of the main street of the town, in a reserve of about five acres of level land. About three acres of this consists of the hospital-grounds proper, the remainder being used for a grazing-paddock. The whole is surrounded by a good fence and hedge, neatly kept, with trees all round. There is a small porter's lodge, built of brick, at the main entrance, from which a wide asphalt approach leads to the front of the building. The hospital consists of three square blocks of brick and cement, connected by a corridor. The northern block is devoted to the male patients, and is the oldest and worst-planned part of the institution. The original wards are about twenty-five years old, but the kitchen and dining-room have been added much later. The central square contains a good large waiting-room and dispensary on the ground-floor, from which a narrow stair, with a sharp turn in it, leads to the female ward and the dispenser's private rooms, on the first floor. The southern square block is the doctor's residence, which contains eight good rooms. The aspect of the building is substantial and comfortable. The grounds in front are trim and well laid out, while the recesses between the blocks, which are planted with shrubs, give the whole a cheerful and homelike appearance. The most striking fact about this hospital is that all the male patients — i.e., the whole of the inmates proper except two or three female patients, for whose accommodation there is a small female ward in the middle block—are crowded into one end