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they are kept for a reasonable time, and a respectable situation is obtained for them as servants upcountry, where they are away from the temptations of city life. Of course the efforts of these ladies are not always successful, for they have taken the same girls into the home three and four times, and they have broken out again, but in most cases they are successful; and these homes have always been open for those unfortunate prostitutes when discharged from the lock hospital. During the year constitutional syphilis has very much diminished in the City of Auckland. The women—those that are registered under the Act, and others who had voluntarily submitted to medical examination—have publicly expressed gratitude for the benefits received by them from the institution. Cases of the most deplorable suffering have been brought to the hospital by Mrs. Bishop Cowie, Mrs. Brame, Mrs. Hutchinson, and Miss Davey of the Salvation Army Befuge. In some cases young girls whose ages range between fourteen and eighteen years, who made voluntary application for treatment, were so frightfully diseased as to prevent them from walking or sitting. Several of the inmates who were treated at the hospital have married and settled in life; others have gone back to their homes; others have been taken into Mrs. Bishop Cowie's home and the Salvation Home, reformed, and are in situations. The introduction of the Act in the City of Auckland has been a great boon to that class of suffering humanity, aided as it has been by those ladies aforementioned, who have been unremitting in their efforts to reclaim those of them who are not past all control or reformation. Edward Hughes, Detective No. 307.

CHBISTCHUBCH. Inspector Pender to the Commissioner of Constabulary. New Zealand Constabulary, Inspector's Office, Sir,— Christehurch, 22nd July, 1886. In compliance with the request contained in your telegram of yesterday re the non-enforce-ment of the provisions of the Contagious Diseases Act, I have the honour to inform you that its operations in this district ceased on the 28th February, 1885, in accordance with the Proclamation in the New Zealand Gazette, 1884, page 1685. In my opinion the Act conduced to the better moral as well as physical health of the community, inasmuch as the periodical medical inspection of the women checked the spread of disease, while the dread entertained by many women of such inspection deterred them from joining the ranks of the prostitutes. In proof of this I may state that their number has greatly increased since my letter of the 30th June, 1885, and that I have noticed their conduct to be more reckless and abandoned, and that their habits of cleanliness seem to be more neglected than when the provisions of the Act were in force. Inquiries made about the city tend to show that cases of venereal disease are also on the increase, an almost certain result of the cessation of the Act. I have, &c, The Commissioner, Armed Constabulary, P. Pender, Wellington. Inspector in Charge, Christehurch District. {Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, nil; printing(l,2socopies), £1 4s.j

Authority: Gboboe Didsbuby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBB6.