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1008. You say that you went to the meeting?— Yes ; I had an uncomfortable sensation in my own mind. 1009. I want to know whether that effect was connected with the resolution to have a public inquiry ?—I certainly had an impression that there was to be an inquiry, but I was equally impressed that the Trustees did not know what form it would be eventually. 1010. I will follow your evidence in the order in which it was taken. Now, you have spoken of your ideal hospitals, where do they exist ?—St. Thomas's, in London, is one. 1011. That was completed and opened about twenty-two years ago, was it not? —I could not tell you exactly. 1012. Twenty years, at any rate? —Yes. 1013. "Where else do such ideals exist ?—I cannot tell you, but if you refer to some of these books you will find them. 1014. Have you had any personal experience of the pavilion system of hospital ?—I think the Wellington Hospital is built on the pavilion system. 1015. Then that is your model for New Zealand ? —No. I think it might be very much better even than the Wellington Hospital. 1016. So that there is no model hospital to be found in New Zealand?— No. 1017. Is there in New Zealand any reasonably-perfect hospital, according to your notion?— Yes. I should be perfectly well satisfied if we had a hospital like the Wellington one down here, or even one like the Christchurch Hospital. The Alfred Hospital, in Sydney, is also built on the pavilion system. 1018. Do you know it ? —I do. I spent a good deal of time in it when I was over there. 1019. Is it a hospital in which the conditions are reasonably perfect ? —I should say decidedly so. If, however, you mean that there are no defects, then I say no ; but nothing human can be perfection. 1020. You consider it reasonably perfect ?—Certainly. 1021. What other hospitals do you know?— When I went over to Australia I saw the old hospital in Sydney. They were crying out very much against it; but I thought it infinitely superior to ours in every respect. Even the Melbourne Hospital, which has been so much condemned lately, compared most favourably with ours. 1022. Do you join in the condemnation of the Melbourne Hospital ?—I do not know sufficiently about it. 1023. What is the difference between the condition of these hospitals and ours ? —They are infinitely superior to ours. 1024. Are they good?—I should say that they are very good. I know that, coming from New Zealand, they seemed to me to be very good. 1025. So far as structure of the hospital was concerned—distribution of space and convenience of arrangements?— They had much more conveniences than ours. 1026. Have you made a special study of this subject of hospital building ?—No, I have not; but I have read a great many books on the subject since I began to take an interest in it. 1027. That is to say, during the last eighteen months?— Yes. 1028. Since you have taken an interest in it for the purposes of this case? —I have worked it up a good deal since I was over to Sydney. 1029. You visited England lately ?—I did. 1030. You saw the hospitals there?— Yes ; a great number of them. 1031. Did you see a great number of hospitals that were tolerably perfect hospitals ?—Yes ; but you see I am very moderate in my ideas of hospitals. 1032. But you must have seen a great many old hospitals?— Yes; but I never was inside a hospital that in any way approached the Dunedin Hospital. 1033. You never saw nothing like so bad a hospital as ours ?—No; I never saw anything like so bad. 1034. On what did you form your conclusion that the Dunedin Hospital was so bad?—l have formed that conclusion from the first day that I was in it. 1035. Have you held since then the opinion that it was thoroughly bad?—Of course; I did not recognise until lately how bad it was. Possibly that has been growing on me. It was after making a round of the colonies and seeing what superior institutions there were there that I came back intensely disgusted with ours. 1036. Was it after you came back from England that you felt intensely disgusted with our Hospital ?—Of course, when one is at Home he expects to find things much better than in the colonies. It was after visiting Melbourne and other colonial cities, and seeing how immensely superior to ours were the hospitals there that I was disgusted. 1037. Then it was on your return from your Melbourne trip that you felt so intensely disgusted ? —After going to Australia I made a trip round the coast, and saw the Wellington and Christchurch Hospitals. I was not back very long before I took action—somewhere about the second week of February, 1889. 1038. You were in Melbourne during Exhibition year?— Yes ; I went over there to attend the Medical Congress, and while there I saw everything that was to be seen in the way of hospitals. I also went to Sydney, and nearly all my time there was spent in the hospitals. 1039. Did you then come to the conclusion that this Hospital of ours ought to be condemned wholesale? —To do what? 1040. You have told us tljat the building was unsuitable, that everything about it was bad. Was that the substantial conclusion that you then came to ? —That has been elaborated since. 1041. You now come to the conclusion that the institution is thoroughly bad, or, to use your own words, you are thoroughly disgusted with it ?—I am indeed. I do not see how any man can do good professional work in it.