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same scale of comfort and costliness as in other wards : in addition, there are provided here a Carter's walking-machine and an invalid-carriage. The new back block at right angles to the Le Cren and Luxmore Wards, and enclosing the courtyard, contains an operating-room, a dispensary and con-sulting-room, a splint-room, an out-patients' waiting-room, a servants' hall, a kitchen and pantry, a store and scullery, a coalhouse, a man-servants' room, a bottle-house, and three closets and a urinal. I pointed out to the architect certain objections to this arrangement, which he undertook to obviate. I pointed out also that the hot-water apparatus proposed for the kitchen w-as quite inadequate. The outbuildings contain |a well-appointed washbouso and laundry, with a cement floor, a washing-machine and mangle driven by water-power. There are two built-in boilers —one for the clothes and one to supply hot water to the tubs—and there is an ironing-stove. The old fever ward is now used as a workshop. The mortuary stands so low that it cannot bo drained; besides, it is old and shabby. A garden of about an acre is enclosed with a good hedge, and well cultivated. I found all the books carefully kept. As might have been expected from the straggling plan of the building, I found the staff to be very large and expensive. The salaries are as follows : Doctor, £250; stew 7ard and matron, £175 ; two nurses at £40 each; twounder-nurses at £20 each; one cleaner at £20 ; a night-nurse at £40 ; cook and laundress, each £40 ; housemaid, £30 ; scullerymaid, £20; porter, £45 ; and gardener, £52. x\ll this staff for 205 in-patients in 1886, or a daily average of 21|- in-patients; while the amount received from the patients amounted only to £179 16s. Voluntary subscriptions amounted to £54 17s. 3d. I must, however, mention in this connection that Mrs. Jowsey collected £120 for furniture. The number of old chronic cases I found to be, one old man, suffering from paralysis—had been for twelve years in hospital; one man, with chronic stricture—three years and a half ; one epileptic—admitted permanently ; two chronic female cases, one of whom had been twenty years in the hospital, and the other four years and a half. Two other cases had been in the hospital five months and three months respectively. With 487 out-patients, the drug-bill for the year amounted to £290 4s. lid.; medical comforts cost £78 2s. lid. The patients all (as well they might) spoke highly of the treatment they received. A quarrel has lately taken place between Dr. Drew and the steward, during which the doctor was struck by his subordinate. The matter is to be investigated by the Committee on Dr. Drew's.return from Dunedin. Ist February, 1887.

WAIMATE. This hospital is a memento of the time when the local bodies of South Canterbury had more money than they could usefully spend. It is a handsome, woll-dosigned building, standing in. a reserve of fourteen acres on the outskirts of the town. It has a fine wide approach, bordered with poplars and pines and flower-beds. There is a gorgeous mass of geraniums at the end of the building, and a round plot in front. The grounds, as a whole, are well laid out, and well kept in order. The building is of brick, faced with stucco. It consists of a central block, with a verandah and two wings. On the right of the entrance-hall is a sitting-room for the steward and his wife (an old Sunnyside attendant, who will do justice to his position). To the left is the waiting-room and consulting-room. Behind these rooms a cross-corridor extends from the one wing to the oilier, into which open the two main wards at either end, and their accessory rooms in the intervening space. The male ward, in the right wing of the building, 57ft. by 18ft., is well lighted and well ventilated, and almost luxuriously furnished. A neat dado, with brown border, runs round the ward ; the walls are painted of a cream colour, and the ceiling white. The ward contains nine beds, fchn eof which are occupied. Two are accident patent beds, and all are exceedingly comfortable, having good hair mattrasses. The female ward, 27ft. by 18ft., containing one patient, is furnished in the same sumptuous fashion, with elaborate and costly appliances and every convenience. Besides the two large wards, there is a ward for special cases containing two beds. Behind the main building stands the fever hospital, containing two neat wards, 24ft. by 30ft., lined with varnished kauri, well lighted and ventilated. Each contains five comfortable beds, and all other requisites of a suitable kind. To the right stands a wooden building, containing well-furnished washhouse, ironing-room and drying-room, and mortuary, all well appointed. The old hospital-building is now used as a dairy and storehouse, which requires suitable bins. There is a vegetable-garden well stocked, containing about half an acre. There are beyond two grass-paddocks, one used for hay and the other for grazing a cow. The drainage is excellent, being directed into the river behind. 31st January, 1887.

WAIPAWA. This hospital occupies a beautiful site a little distance from the town. The reserve is about live acres of good land, well laid out, and surrounded by a belt of line trees. A considerable portion is cultivated as a kitchen garden and orchard. The building contains a female ward, with five beds; a small isolating male ward, with three beds; and two larger male wards, one of which contains five, beds, all occupied. In addition to these rooms, there are a convenient dispensary, a committee-room, a dining-room for convalescent patients, a handsome well-furnished kitchen, and three rooms for the resident staff. The wards are all comfortably furnished and kept very clean. The beds are all very comfortable. All the rooms are well lighed, but the ventilation is very imperfect, for, though there are Tobin's tubes in the walls, there are no corresponding openings in the ceilings.* This defect, as well as the condition of

* At a subsequent visit, on the 24th March, 1887, I found all this altered, and the whole so much improved that this hospital is now one of the most comfortable and best managed in the colony. A detailed description of the additions will appear in next year's report,