H.—3l.

for by the fact that they were retained in the clinic for a year after they had completed training. Also certain assistance was given by nurses from the field, twelve in all, who for various reasons were brought into the Wellington Clinic for short periods. The number of extractions per one hundred fillings for the past year (Wellington Clinic only) is 8-8. This is shown below in comparison with the average of past years : — 1921-34 .. .. .. 25-7 extractions per one hundred fillings. 1930-34 . . . . .. 9-5 extractions per one hundred fillings. 1933-34 . . . . 8-8 extractions per one hundred fillings. New Patients. —The number of new patients who have attended the clinic for initial examination during the twelve months Ist April, 1933, to 31st March, 1934, is 399, a very large decrease on the previous year, when 1,660 were admitted. This decrease is wholly due to the inability of the reduced staff to do more than maintain the treatment of those patients already attending the clinic. The average age of the new patients accepted was 4-7 years. This figure does not allow that the names of all these patients had been placed on the waiting-list some months before being called up for treatment. At the 31st March, 1933, the number of patients under treatment was 6,781, and at the 31st March, 1934, 5,907. Annual Registration Fee.—Registrations during the twelve months ending 31st March, 1934, totalled 3,435, compared with 4,155 for the previous year. Exemptions granted were 693, or 20-2 per cent, of the total of those paying the registration, last year's figures being 684 and 16-5 per cent, respectively. Thus .the year shows a decrease in registrations and an increase in percentage of exemptions. As stated in previous reports, the introduction of the annual registration fee has considerably reduced the number of new patients applying for treatment. The average number of new patients treated per year over a period of thirteen years ending 31st March, 1932, was 1,874, whereas applications for treatment since the charge was introduced two years and a half ago have totalled 1,660 per year. In 1933-34, the period under review, only 1,417 were received. The position, however, with reduction in the number of trainees has righted itself and moved to the other extreme—i.e., more applications received than can be accepted for treatment. At present the list of children waiting admittance to the clinic for examination and treatment stands at 1,457. Many of these names were placed on the waiting list in 1933. Orphanages.—Treatment is still being extended to groups of children from various city orphanages. There is an attendance of eighty-nine children from the Presbyterian Boys' and Girls' Orphanages, the Levin Memorial Home, and St. Mary's Girls' Orphanages. T.B. contacts, referred to the clinic by officers of the School Medical Division, also receive regular treatment; these, however, only number twenty-five, as compared with ninety-five in 1932. SECTION VII.—THE WORK OF THE DENTAL CLINIC COMMITTEES. One of the pleasing features of the work of the School Dental service is the able and willing manner in which the great majority of dental clinic committees undertake the responsibility of the local administration of clinics, and so co-operate with the Department in the interests of the children of their district. Undoubtedly their chief responsibility is to raise the necessary funds to meet both their obligations to the Department and also the expenses incurred locally in conducting a clinic. Experience has shown that the most successful committees are those that decentralize, and work through School Committees. Under this system, a Dental Clinic Committee estimates its financial requirements for the year, and then debits each School Committee in the dental group with a proportion of the sum required, according to the roll number. (Note. —Each School Committee in a group is entitled to representation on the Dental Clinic Committee.) The responsibility then devolves on the various School Committees to find the sum debited against them by the central body, the Dental Clinic Committee. Schools that fail to meet their obligations are liable to be excluded from the service, as also are individuals who fail to pay the charge that Committees are authorized to make. The only exception to the latter is in the case of children whose parents are genuinely unable to pay the charge. School Committees are usually in the best position to judge of such cases, but they mostly require applications for exemption to be made in writing. Generally speaking, those committees that have adopted a firm business like attitude in their local administration have been the most successful. Although frequently the tightening-up process has been accompanied at first by a drop in the number of patients, this has invariably been made good later with the added advantage that the local organization has been established on a sound basis. The amount paid to the Department by Dental Clinic Committees during the past year was £4,779 3s. 9d. In addition, the sum of £428 19s. 4d. was received from the Wellington Clinic, making the total receipts £5,208 3s. Id. Additional to the sum mentioned are the local disbursements by Dental Clinic Committees. These sums also have to be raised locally, and are approximately equal to the amount that the Committees pay to the Department.

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