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(3.) PROVISION FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE. The District Health Officer, Auckland, reports: — Provision for Consumptives at Auckland. —Plans for the proposed sanatorium at Tamaki were prepared for the Hospital Board, but in the end the scheme has been indefinitely postponed, while the Board propose to increase the temporary accommodation at the Costley Home, and an increased number of cases are to be received at the Government Sanatorium. This may be sufficient for the present, but cannot be regarded as more than postponing the time when the problem of adequate provision for the consumptive must be faced. The scheme for co-operation with the trustees of the Knox Incurable Home was a sound one, and it is to be hoped may yet lead to a satisfactory issue. We require adequate local accommodation for the incurable and dying cases, and as a preliminary stage for the observation of cases possibly curable, and this must be easily accessible from Auckland. No provision now exists for supplying suitable work for consumptives discharged from treatment wholly or partially cured. Opportunity was taken of the sitting of the Forestry Commission in Auckland to lay before them the suitability of employing such persons in tree-planting in the high plateaus round Lake Taupo. The Knox Home is now well on its way towards completion, and promises to be most satisfactory as to situation and plans. Infectious Diseases Hospital at Point Chevalier. —The value of this property was fully demonstrated during the smallpox outbreak, when 117 patients were removed there for treatment. The numbers were too great for the former very primitive and limited accommodation, and considerable additions had to be made. The use of floored marquee tents enabled those in charge to deal with the patients. Rotorua Infectious Diseases Hospital. —This building was completed, and the old building stripped of any useful material and burned down. The District Health Officer, Wellington, reports:— The Pieton Hospital Board have provided accommodation for 8 cases in a new detached ward. Provision is also being made at the new Hospital buildings in Gisborne in a special isolation block. The special temporary Hospital at Manataha, Waiapu, was again put into order and used during the year. The District Health Officer, Christchurch, reports: — After full consideration whether to abandon Bottle Lake Hospital and put up a new building on a suitable site for scarlet fever and other cases of infectious disease, the North Canterbury Hospital Board decided to extend the accommodation of the Bottle Lake Hospital by putting up a building more suitable for the accommodation of patients who cannot be accommodated in the existing ward but for whom accommodation existed in the form of shelters. For diphtheria and cases of infectious disease other than scarlet fever the new isolation block which has recently been erected at Christchurch Hospital is now available. This contains accommodation for 24 cases. Accommodation for consumptives at the Cashmere Sanatorium, additional shelter accommodation was added for 10 women and 3 men. The completion of the King George V Coronation Memorial Hospital for consumptives unfit for admission to the Cashmere Sanatorium was delayed through the strike. It will probably be completed within the next few months and will contain accommodation for 44 cases. (4.) SANITARY CONDITION OF DISTRICTS. The District Health Officer, Auckland, reports: — Auckland City. The absence of any evidence of plague for the past two years, and the steady diminution in the cases of typhoid, form a good indication that the city sanitary service is doing effective work. The returns as regards typhoid show 58 cases in 1911, 41 in 1912, and 26 in 1913, the latter including the recently added Borough of Parnell. The inclusion of Parnell and more recently of the Arch Hill Road District in the city is satisfactory as indicating that the public are beginning to realize that the day when the petty local body could justify is existence is over. Other suburban bodies are beginning to feel the presence of public opinion, guided by common-sense, towards union into one powerful corporation; and though the petty local politician, who rightly foresees that he will drop out of the limelight when his district merges in the greater body, and the short-sighted individual who sees nothing beyond a possible rise in rates in the scheme are still able to obstruct, their power is waning, and Greater Auckland is becoming something more than a pleasing theory. The work of the Drainage Board continues steadily, and early in the present year the outfall works will be completed and the greater part of the city able to take full advantage of sewer connections. It would seem a matter for regret that the powers of this Board do not extend further and enable them to carry the sewer reticulation work through, both in city and suburbs. The work done would then be on a definite system, and could be completed more rapidly on much more economical terms than under the present system of linking together a number of wholly independent small schemes. Auckland Suburbs. The breakdown in the suburban nightsoil service, which has been foreseen for some years, occurred towards the end of the year owing to the owners of the land at Purewa on which the B—H. 31.