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electricity can be in institutional management. Our resident engineer informs me that the electrical cost for current supplied by the Public Works Department for the year 1920 was £440, and that the average hourly cost spread over the year worked out at 12'05d. per hour. During the latter part of the year some progress was made with the No. 2 day-room extension, as well as with an addition to the laundry. The laundry is not now able to cope with the amount of work sent to it, two more washing-machines, a hydro-extractor, and another mangle being urgently needed. It would lessen the amount of laundry-work, and. bring a welcome relief to both patients and nurses, if the defective children who now share the accommodation set apart for cases of senility among the women .could be treated elsewhere, as I believe it is proposed to do. Farm-work, holding out as it does the best means of curative treatment for those capable of being employed at it, has gone on as heretofore, and the farm returns compare favourably with those of former years. I hope it may be soon possible to build new stables, which are greatly needed, and to complete the drainage system from the cow-byres —another very urgent matter. The farm at Templeton is responding conspicuously to the careful treatment and cultivation it has received from the farm-manager since its purchase some four years ago. This property will prove a most useful and valuable asset to Sunnyside in the near future. Turning to the social life of the institution, I have merely to remark that this has gone on without interruption. Ministers of all denominations have been assiduous in holding religious services. The usual institutional recreations have been varied by the visits of several concert parties from the town, and, when possible, small parties of patients have been enabled, to attend, the theatre performances. Coincident with the spirit of restlessness that was in evidence among the general population when the war-strain relaxed, mental nursing—the most difficult of all branches of nursing -proved, uncongenial to many junior members of the staff, and resignations were frequent. By the senior members, however—men and women of experience, and with interest and enthusiasm for their work—the institution has been well served. To them, and to the office staff, I have to offer my sincere thanks for their consistent help. I also wish to record my hearty thanks to Drs. Lee and Beale for their ready co-operation in the work of the Mental Hospital. SEACLIFF MENTAL HOSPITAL. Dr. Truby King reports : — At the beginning of 1920 the patients numbered 1,077 —namely, males 633, females 444. There were admitted during the year 153 patients—namely, males 81, females 72. The recovery-rate calculated on the admissions was 52 per cent. The deaths during the year were 60, or less than 6 per cent, of the average number resident. The general health of the patients has been good and the recovery-rate satisfactory, in spite of overcrowding, and the fact of the increasing number of the patients and the staff year by year has made the original central provisions for cooking, bathing, and laundry-work more and more inadequate. That no more makeshift alterations can meet the requirements has long been recognized, and the limit has been passed where mere patchwork will suffice. It would be a waste of money to incur further expenditure on the present kitchen and bathrooms, as such. The central kitchen and bakery ought to be converted into bathrooms, and entirely new buildings and improved equipment ought o be provided in order to cope properly with the food and cooking needed for over a thousand persons. I feel bound to emphasize the urgent needs at Seacliff in the direction indicated. That the works referred to are urgent necessities has of course been fully recognized by the central authority ; however, the exigencies of war-time and its aftermath do not make the existing position any more tolerable, though they may make it almost impossible to deal adequately with the matter at the present time. All one can do is to reiterate what is needed, and to point out that special provisions for tubercular patients are also overdue. The Orokonui Branch Mental Hospital at Waitati is doing good work, but suffers from, the prevailing shortage of funds. To my professional colleagues and the staff I wish to convey my hearty appreciation of loyal and devoted service. Their great personal kindness and helpfulness to myself and family make leaving Seacliff at the end of thirty-two years' residence both easy and difficult.