D.-4

XIV

Mental Hospitals. New laundry machinery has been installed at Auckland, and tenders have been invited for extensive additions to the buildings to meet present and future requirements. The Wolfe Bequest Reception-house has been completed and is in occupation. At Tokanui buildings for the new mental hospital necessary to relieve, but not to replace, the existing institutions are about to be erected at the extremity of the property nearest Te Puhi Railway-station. The area of land is 5,000 acres, and the intention is to build separate erections for the accommodation of each class and subclass of patients. There are very fine building-sites for this purpose sufficiently separated to eliminate the sentiment of a large institution. A start has been made in working the land, and when this can be extended by the labour of patients the proper-ty will be improved so much in excess of its cost that, quite apart from the ideal conditions for the treatment and classification of patients, it will be seen that the selection of this area was a very wise step. At Porirua the extensive additions were furnished, and immediately occupied. A second water-reservoir is being constructed, and many minor works have been carried out. The area of land in connection with the hospital is hardly adequate for the number of patients, and an additional area of eighty acres has been leased. The limited extent of land available will preclude any considerable extension of the buildings, but it is contemplated to make a moderate addition on the lines of the Wolfe Bequest Hospital in Auckland. At Sumryside a refrigerating-plant is being put in, and an extension of the single-room accommodation has been provided on the women's side. It is proposed to repeat here also the plan of the Wolfe Bequest Hospital in order that as many patients as possible may in the first instance be received and treated there instead of in the main institution. At Seacliff the dr) weather has demonstrated beyond question the necessity for an improved water-supply, and the necessary works are in progress. Some minor additions to the buildings are being carried out, and the accommodation at the auxiliary institution at Waitati is to be extended. Schools. During the year the sum of i'124,9'26 was expended out of the Public Works Fund on school buildings and £57,571 out of the Consolidated Fund. As usual, the greater part of this amount was paid to Education Boards, High School Boards, and other controlling authorities as grants for the erection of new buildings and additions, and for the purchase of sites and equipment, &c, for primary schools (including teachers' residences), secondary and technical schools, training colleges, and university colleges. The following were the principal works carried out directly under the control of the Government: Completion of the principal's residence and a classification cottage at the special school for boys, Otekaike; installation of a gas-lighting plant at Te Oranga Home (girls' reformatory), Christchurch; completion of a new wing at Burnham Industrial School; additional rooms for the staff and another cottage home at the Boys' Training Farm, Weraroa ; part purchase of land, buildings, stock, and equipment for the Boys' Industrial School, Stoke, Nelson; and four new Native schools, as well as additional accommodation at several existing ones. Wokkeks' Dwellings. On the supplementary estimates last year a vote of £ 15,000 was taken for workers' dwellings, and considerable preliminary work was done in pursuance of this appropriation. On the current year's estimates largely increased provision has been made —namely, for the acquisition of suitable sites, for road-formation to give access to same, and for the erection of suitable buildings. This work is being carried out under the direction of the Department of Labour.