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house and servcry-scullery. It is intended to cook the food in the main kitchen, and convey it to the servery. Beyond, there is a common dining-room for patients and a dining-room for nurses. To the east of the nurses' dining-room is their entrance-porch and stair leading to a floor above the dining block, where the added height shades nothing. On this floor arc rooms for the nursing staff. It is a pity that economy necessitates construction in wood here as in the other buildings projected, but brick is specified for the sanitary block and boiler-house. Against fire there are brick cut-offs, and hydrants (marked F.H. in the plan) are placed to command all parts of the building. I have sketched above a large building programme. Each year must add to the mental-hospital population, and that addition must be provided for. True, the addition in 1908 was abnormal, but to keep up to even normal increments means a steady expenditure. The same would hold good of general hospitals if those who were not cured continued to live in these institutions. The expenditure must bo faced, and such works as have not yet been started should be put in commission immediately, or it will not be possible for the Mount View patients to be provided for elsewhere. Of course, some inconvenience must be expected when 250 patients from Mount View have to be accommodated at short notice, but something less than the full programme will keep the crowding within reasonable bounds, provided buildings are started on the Central Mental Hospital site as soon as we get possession. The Staff. —I have every reason to believe that the nurses and attendants, or, at any rate, the large majority of them, are interested in the service, and are working faithfully ; and therefore 1 share the more their disappointment over the decision not to count emoluments as salary in estimating the superannuation allowance. If the exigencies of the service permitted the members of the staff to board and lodge away from the institutions, the cost of board and lodging would, as a matter of course, have to be added to the salary, and would then count towards providing an adequate retiring-allowance. With living-in made a condition of employment, and the salary paid made correspondingly less, the staff, notwithstanding the logic on its side, is in a most unfortunate and anomalous position. The usefulness of attendants after the age of sixty, and of nurses after fifty, begins very quickly to lessen, so much so that it would be impossible to run an institution without adding to the staff if many at these ages were employed. If, for the purpose of demonstration, we take persons entering the service at, say, twenty-five years of age and retiring at the above ages, the following would indicate the difference in their retiring-allowance between the systems of counting and not counting emoluments as salary : — Emoluments „ , Rank. counted Emoluments (Estimate). not counted - £ £ s. d. Ordinary attendant .. .. .. Over 80 59 15 10 Charge attendant . . .. .. .. Nearly 100 74 7 6 Ordinary nurses .. . . .. .. ~ 44 25 0 0 Charge nurses .. .. .. .. „ 50 31 5 0 Of course, there would be a higher deduction which those who intend to make the care of the insane a life-work would willingly pay. Those, on the other hand, who mean to pass on to something else need not be considered, and the fund would benefit by the interest on the additional payments. The following names were added to the Register of Mental Nurses. The written examination was held in December, and the viva voce conducted by Miss Maclean and myself, with the co-operation of the Superintendents, during our visits to the mental hospitals. Auckland : William Hardman. Christchurch : James Henry Chapman, Henry Curtis, Charlotte Dymond, George Merson, Kate O'Connor, Susan Jane Waters. Seacliff : Annie Sinclair Blair, Mary Cupples, Jens Peter Erlandson, Catherine Graham, Robert Marr, Clarissa Eliza McLaren, Edith McLellan, William Stewart, George James Sutherland. Alfred Bernard Wyley. Porirua : Vivian Radford Briggs, Elizabeth Chapman, Albert Morgan. Wellington : Andrew Brown, Bernard Grofski, John Percy Terry r Under the new regulations, the nursing staff, after a period of a year's probation, pass by examination to the rank of junior attendant or nurse, as the case may be. The examination requires an elementary knowledge of the structure and functions of the body, and first aid in common emergencies. At the end of the fourth year (including the period of probation) the junior becomes a senior nurse or attendant, with increase of salary ; but by passing a more advanced examination at the end of the third year, the higher rank and salary date from then ; otherwise the salary for the fourth year is the same as that for the third. Last session a vote was passed which came into operation on the Ist January, 1909, and gave an all-round addition of £7 10s. to the salary of attendants and £5 to the salary of nurses. The remuneration of the nursing staff is now as follows : — Attendant. Nurse. £ s. d. £ Probationer . . .. .. £ s. d. 77 10 0 £ 45 Junior '.. .. .. From 82 10 otoB7 10 0 From 50 to 55 Senior .. .. • .. „ 92 10 oto 102 10 0 60 Charge .. .. .. „ 107 10 oto 127 10 0 From 65 to 75 With board, lodging, washing, and uniform, and, in the case of men ranking as married, a houseallowance not exceeding £20.

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