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5670. You are in the wards necessarily at all hours of the day and night ?—ln the day. 5671. How are the wards ventilated?- —By the windows. 5672. Is it your duty to attend to these windows ?—Yes. 5673. You see that the ward is kept properly ventilated?— Yes; I always endeavour to do that. 5674. The Chairman.] Do the patients complain of the windows, or wish to have them closed ? —Yes, at times they do. If a patient says there is a draught from such a window, I will close that window and open another. 5675. Mr. Chapman.] "When you have gone into the wards in the early morning, have you found them close ?—No. 5676. Dr. Batchelor has told us that he found one ward so close one morning that it made him retch. Did you ever find the wards in such a state ?—No ; nor did I ever feel anything like that. 5677. You have told us that you have been a nurse for four years in February next: how long have you been off duty during that time ?—Three weeks and two days. 5678. What was the cause of your being off duty?— When I had been here three months I was ill for about three weeks. 5679. Were you ill when the influenza was about ?—I had a cold for a few days. 5680. Do you get any holidays during the year ?—A fortnight. 5681. The Chairman.] Are you including the holidays in your answer ?—Not in the three weeks that I was off duty through being sick. 5682. Mr. Solomon.] About Mrs. T 's operation : had you ever been at an operation of that sort before ? I mean at an abdominal operation in which a drainage-tube was used ?—Yes. 5683. You say that the tube had been inserted, and the patient was ready to be dressed, when Dr. Batchelor remarked that the tube was filling. Did you see that it was filling ?—Yes. 5684. Then the doctors asked you to give them sponges?— One of them did. 5685. Which one?— Dr. Maunsell. 5686. And two quarters were used for the absorption of the blood ? —Yes. 5687. Did you remain until the patient was dressed ?—Yes. 5688. Then the other two pieces of sponge were not used? —No. 5689. You say that you have not noticed the wards too close ?—I have not. 5690. Never ?—They may have been close occasionally, but then I would open an extra window. But they have never been so close as to make one feel uncomfortable in them. 5691. Sometimes when you have gone into the ward, have you not noticed yourself the atmosphere close, and have had to open a window or two ?—I do not think so. 5692. You have just told us that when you found it close you opened an extra window ?—That was about 5 o'clock in the evening. 5693. In stormy weather?—No, in mild weather. Sometimes it is very warm in the evenings, and then you have to open more windows. There is not always the same temperature in the wards. 5694. Have you ever noticed the state of the wards in the early morning ?—Yes. 5695. Have you always found them fresh? —Yes. And for two years and nine months I was in them from 6 in the evening till 6 next morning. 5696. And you declare that you never noticed that the wards were stuffy?— Never. 5697. Then, according to you, it would be an exaggeration to say that an hour's work in a ward was more fatiguing than a day's work outside the Hospital?— Well, I have had a great deal more than an hour's work there, and I have never felt the slightest fatigue. 5698. Well, that is Dr. Colquhoun's experience ?—Then it is according to how he exerted himself. 5699. I mean from the unpleasant nature of the atmosphere of the ward ?—I do not know how long he remains in the ward. If he said that, Ido not know how he managed it. Maey Waymouth sworn and examined. 5700. Mr. Chapman.] You are a nurse in the Dunedin Hospital?—-Yes. 5701. How long have you been there?— Eighteen months. lam certificated by the St. John's Ambulance Society, and received my certificate before I went to the Hospital. 5702. Do you remember Mrs. T 's case?—l remember the operation. 5703. Were you present at it ?—Yes. 5704. What were you doing ?—Waiting on the doctors. 5705. Throughout the operation ?—Yes. 5706. Did you see the bleeding?— Yes. 5707. Did you hear what nurse Shaw said just now ?—Yes. 5708. Did you see what was done ?—I heard the words. 5709. What words?— What Dr. Batchelor said. 5710. What were his words?—"By Jove, Maunsell, it's filling !" 5711. Did you hear anything else that was said?— Dr. Batchelor said that he would put the dressings on and " chance it." 5712. Did you see the dressings put on?— Yes. 5713. Did you see the tube yourself ?—Yes. 5714. What did you see done with it ?—-They just took the blood out of it. It was empty for a moment. 5715. The Chairman.] When the dressing was put on, the blood had just been removed from the tube?— Yes. 5716. Did you put the dressing on yourself?—No,