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system of ventilation has been installed in the women's portion of the main building, similar to that recently installed in the men's portion. The watersupply has been improved by raising the level of the lower dam, and all fire-hydrants have been overhauled and put in good order. Nelson and Stoke : Three large villas in brick and concrete are in course of erection ; also a new bakery, meat-shop, &c. Sunnyside : Extensive additions to the boiler-house are under construction, new boilers, &c., being provided together, with new chimney-stack, &c. Templeton : Villa No. 2, on the same lines as Villa No. 1, is in course of erection, very satisfactory progress having been made. Seacliff : A new laundry and kitchen block has been erected, and is ready for the installation of machinery and equipment. Additions to the Nurses' Home and a new Assistant Medical Officer's house are nearing completion. New piggeries have been erected, and extensive alterations, additions, and renovations have been carried out. The expenditure on mental hospitals last year amounted to £96,782. Health and Hospital Institutions. At Queen Mary Hospital, Hanmer, the contract for the erection of a new Nurses' Home is making good progress. A new brick boiler-house has been erected, and lavatory block No. 2 has been renovated. Extensive additions were made to the hospitals at Napier, Greymouth, and Gore, and the erection of a maternity hospital at Paeroa is well advanced. A new hospital in concrete was erected at Te Araroa. The capital expenditure on health and hospital institutions during last year was £19,637. The proposals this year provide for the erection of a new St. Helens Hospital at Christchurch, and the purchase of land at Auckland for extensions to St. Helens Hospital; also the purchase of land at Dunedin for a new maternity hospital, which it is proposed to erect to provide increased facilities for the teaching of obstetrics. Provision is made for completion of the massage block and Nurses' Home at Hanmer. Provision is also made for an ante-natal clinic at St. Helens Hospital, Wanganui, which is now nearing completion, and various additions to staff quarters at St. Helens Hospitals at Gisborne, Wanganui, and Invercargill. Extra accommodation is arranged for at Otaki Sanatorium, owing to the separation of the hospital from the sanatorium. Agricultural Buildings. The amount expended last year on capital works was £2,808, being practically the same as the previous year. The principal works carried out were new piggeries at Motuihi Island erected, electric light and power installed at Te Kauwhata Farm and Wallaceville Laboratory, and an implement-shed and hothouse erected for the seed-testing branches at Palmerston North. Education. For the year ended 31st March, 1929, the sum of £375,352 was spent on new school buildings, additions, sites, and teachers' residences. Of this amount, £247,348 was expended in connection with primary schools, the larger works including a new infant department at Meadowbank (Auckland), a new school at Awapuni (Gisborne), and separate secondary departments at Te Karaka and Wairoa (Hawke's Bay), and at Fairlie (Canterbury). Model schools were established in connection with the Auckland Training College. Additions to schools have been provided at Taumarunui, New Lynn, Papatoetoe, Ellerslie, Hikurangi, Morrinsville, and Otorohanga, in the Auckland Education District; at Mahora, Hawke's Bay ; and at Elmwood, Canterbury. The erection of numerous small schools in newly settled districts, and additions to existing schools, have also been undertaken, especially in those localities where two teachers were compelled to teach in one room.