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AGENDA PAPER. CONFERENCE OF HOSPITAL BOARD DELEGATES. The above Conference will open on Tuesday, the 27th June, at 11 a.m., when His Excellency Lord Islington, Governor of New Zealand, will address the delegates. Proposed order of business :— Address by His Excellency the Governor. Address by the Hon. Minister in Charge of the Department. Address by the Inspector-General of Hospitals. The various remits will be considered under the undermentioned sections :— Section I.—Public Health. (a.) The Powers and Responsibilities of Hospital Boards under the Public Health Act, 1908. Discussion introduced by Mr. Walker, Chairman of the Otago Hospital Board. REMITS. Otago: That the Conference be requested to express its views as to working of section 5 of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Amendment Act, 1910, and to continuance or otherwise of this duty- being imposed upon Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards. That the Conference consider the question of its being made mandatory on Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards to take over the sanitary inspection in their respective districts, in addition to the inspection in connection with prevention of infectious diseases. Waipawa: That it is desirable that the respective positions of the Health Department and the Hospital anil Charitable Aid Boards in respect of the Inspector of Infectious Diseases be more clearlydefined, in view of the fact that. Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards are now the local authority for notifying such cases, while they have no power to appoint the necessary- Inspectors to enforce the provisions of the Public Health Act. (b.) The Administrative Control of Tuberculosis. Discussion introduced by Mr. Horrell, Chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board. REMITS. Otago : That the Government be requested to introduce further amending legislation to give the various Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards power of detention over inmates of benevolent homes, hospitals, sanatoria, or other institutions under the Boards' control. Ashburton : Power to detain persons suffering from tuberculosis, especially charitable-aid cases sent for treatment and returned as incurable from Palmerston or any other hospital or sanatorium. Coromandel : That the Government provide homes for indigent consumptives and incurables in such numbers and localities as are deemed desirable. Under existing circumstances and conditions the cases cannot be efficiently treated in ordinary hospitals, and, if they are so treated, become a menace to other patients and the community. In many districts consumptives are given outdoor relief by Charitable Aid Boards. In the case of either of the parents being the diseased person it becomes a national calamity, as they go on bringing diseased children into the world. This is considered a real menace to the people of the Dominion, and requires immediate action. Consideration of provision of sanatoria for consumptives on the lines laid down in Dr. Blackmore's report —namely, one sanatorium for the North Island and one for the South Island. In this connection the Government to be asked, as a step towards stamping out consumption, tn bring this disease within the scope of infectious diseases for compulsory treatment; also to give powers to Hospital and Charitable- Aid Hoards of legal detention of all patients in infectious hospitals and institutions during tin- periods medically declared necessary for the recovery of such patients. North Canterbury : Visiting of out-patients at their homes by qualified nurses, and consideration of the question of setting up dispensaries elsewhere than at public hospitals. (c.) The Health of the Native Race. A discussion on this subject will be introduced by Mr. Powell, of the Waipiro Hospital Board. Section II. —Hospital Administration. (a.) The Incipient Mental and D.T. Patient. Discussion introduced by the Inspector-General. REMITS. That the question of making provision for treating incipient mental cases at the base hospitals in the principal centres be considered. , ~,.,.., That the question of making provision for D.T. cases at the base hospitals in the principal centres be considered. Hawke's Bay: That homes for indigent imbeciles be provided by the Sstate.