H.—3.

Bevenue and Expenditure. Bevenue. £ s. d. l Expenditure. £ s. d. From Government ... ... 443 16 6 j Eations ... ... ... 264 16 6 Local bodies ... ... ... 419 16 7 j Wines, spirits, ale, &c. ... ... 20 14 9 Subscriptions and donations ... 49 0 0 Surgery and dispensary... ... 100 3 3 Patients'payments ... ... 97 18 3 Fuel and light... ... ... 27 12 0 Other sources ... ... 30 0 0 Furniture and earthenware ... 74 10 4 Salaries and wages ... ... 449 6 6 Funerals ... ... ... 31 5 0 Eepairs ... ... ... 57 15 0 Insurance ... ... ... 10 0 0 Other expenses ... ... 480 Total ... ... £1,040 11 4 Total ... ...£1,040 11 4 I found that considerable improvements had been made in this Hospital since my last visit. The ventilation of some of the wards, which I complained of last year, has been attended to, the closets and urinals are improved, and the condition of the surroundings is much better. The number of chronic cases is still a marked feature of the Hospital. The management is good, and the surgeon is very attentive to his patients. There were nine patients on the day of my visit, and none of them made any complaint. There is a slight increase in the number treated during the year, and the daily average cost per patient has been reduced from 6s. 3fd. to ss.

' • ■ EEFUGES. The old people's refuges at Invercargill, Dunedin, Ashburton, Christchurch, Napier, and Auckland, have all been inspected and found to be well and carefully managed. The trustees of the Otago Benevolent Institute still persist in their indefensible system of keeping from forty to fifty children in the same institution as the old people, instead of boarding them out, as they ought to do, under proper supervision. The Napier Charitable Aid Board have under consideration a scheme, which I hope they will carry out, for securing a suitable refuge in the country. They will thus be enabled soon to abandon the buildings on the hospital hill, which are getting too old for occupation. D. MacGregor, M.A., M.8., Inspector of Asylums and Hospitals.

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