7

H.—7

salary is correspondingly less. To place this service on a level with others, such emoluments should be valued, and the sum of such value and the cash paid be reckoned as salary. At least the option may be given of contributing on the basis of the full remuneration. When the question of special treatment for special conditions is under consideration with the view of ascertaining whether concessions are actuarially possible, the following instances in which this service benefits the fund should be considered :— Many join the service with no intention of remaining in it. Some get to like the work, and continue, and some having made a convenience of the mental hospital pass on to other occupations. Many join with no definite regard to the future, but leave us on finding the occupation unpleasant or the subjection to discipline irksome —very necessary discipline, but very foreign to our people. Many, on the other hand, after a few months are found unsuitable for the special work, and their services are dispensed with. In all these cases the fund benefits to the extent of interest on contributions, while in other services the duties are not unaccustomed, and they are entered upon as a life-work. Owing, also, to the higher age on joining the service, it will be found that very few will get the extraordinary benefits conferred on the initiation of the system —the counting of years of back service without contribution. Here, again, the fund will distinctly benefit. The actuary may also consider whether and how far the contributors, by voluntarily increasing the amount of their contributions could be given increased benefits. The object of the retiring-allowance is that set forth in the paragraph quoted above, and I believe, if the special circumstances of the Department were considered in a liberal spirit, placing it on a real equality with other branches of the public service, the Act would supply "the most influential inducement " there spoken of for suitable persons to enter the service as a permanent occupation. Medical Superintendents and Special Leave. —For one who has not lived the life it is difficult to form any adequate conception of the work, anxieties, and harassments of a Medical Superintendent of a mental hospital, of his ever-present sense of responsibility. Apart from the general and special knowledge of his profession, he must, to discharge his duties successfully, have powers of organization and administration, have a knowledge of men and things, have the right to hold convictions, and have the strength of his convictions—in fact, he must possess a combination of qualities not to be found in the ordinary man. True, there is a variety of occupation; but this variety, because great issues may depend on seeming trifles, does not permit any phase of the work to partake of the recreative quality of a hobby. The result is that " few men can venture, without danger to health, to extend their tenure of office beyond moderate limits." Upon this fact, well known, the words quoted here being from the 1890 report of the English Commissioners, and' upon the recognised necessity for men engaged in such work, and isolated, to periodically visit centres of scientific activity, I base the hope that a liberal measure of long leave may be granted without, as has sometimes been the case, such leave being sick-leave. I trust it may become a rule of the service that in every few years the Medical Superintendents will be granted, say, six months' leave for recreation, with an additional three on their undertaking to devote three months out of the nine to visiting recent institutions in Europe or America, working in research laboratories, critically observing newer methods of treatment, &c, —in other words, following up the latest work in their special calling for the good of the public service. Scientific journals keep our medical officers in touch with all these matters, but, save in very exceptional instances, nothing short of actual experience can give the comprehensive grasp of a subject which is necessary to carry the application of it to our conditions past the intermediate stage of experiment. Financial Results. —The details of last year's expenditure will be found in Tables XX and XXI in the appendix. In the following table the gross and net cost per patient for the year 1907 is contrasted with the previous year:—

1907. l'Ji 6. 1907. 1907. Mental Hospital. j Total Coat per Patient, less Total Cost Receipts for per Patient. Maintenance, Sales of Produce, &o. Total Cost per Patient. Total Cost per Patient, less Receipts for r n crease Maintenance, lnorease - Sales of Produce, &o. Decrease. Auckland Christchuroh ... Seacliff Hokitika Nelson Porirua Wellington £ s. d. 26 2 4435 14 4 41 2 7 27 2 2 32 8 4f 34 7 2| 40 19 6 £ s. 18 11 20 11 30 4 24 18 20 10 26 9 30 11 d. 54 5* 64 Of 4 4 2f £ 8. 26 12 34 5 40 7 27 1 32 16 33 2 41 1 d. 2* 64 2 7f li 2f 0 £ s. d. 20 3 74 22 0 5 30 2 2J 23 10 11£ 25 10 1 25 16 2J 31 1 11 £ s. d. 0 2 4 1 7 1J- £ s. d. 1 12 2 1 18 11J 4 19" 9 0 13 If 0 lb" 8i Averages ... 34 7 94 24 11 84 33 19 14 25 5 &i 0 14 04