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garden is, as usual, well kept, but a bad season for fruit and vegetables has rendered it less successful than usual. The keeping of pigs (within the borough) here has been prohibited. I paid a visit to the refuge, which might well serve as a model for other towns, both as regards arrangements and comfort. The meals are now conveyed hither, from the hospital kitchen, in a well-contrived enclosed waggon. The fever hospital at Parawai was also visited by me, but found untenanted. No patient appears to have been received here during the last twelve months. February 26th, 1885.

TIMARU. I have, this day, visited the Timaru hospital, and made a complete inspection thereof. There are now fifteen male and ten female patients in residence, twenty of whom may be regarded as proper subjects for hospital treatment; the remaining five would be more appropriately housed in a Eefuge. Every patient had the opportunity of speaking privately to me. All I found to be perfectly contented with their treatment and surroundings. In this establishment the indefatigable Steward, Mr. Jowsey, has always some improvements in hand; he is now occupied in renovating and decorating the wards and adjoining rooms. One of the large wards, with its belongings, has just been finished ; the floor is in splendid condition, and the walls are painted, stencilled and distempered in a most elegant manner; in fact, I cannot call to mind anything so pleasing and good of its kind, in the Old Country. The female ward is at present undergoing a like process ; the expense of the work being defrayed from a small endowment fund. Meanwhile, Mrs. Jowsey, the Matron, has been engaged in collecting a sum of money, with the view of purchasing some more luxurious furniture for the patients' use. Her fund already exceeds £83, and it is hoped that £100 will be reached. It is scarcely necessary to remark that, under the management of persons so deeply interested in its welfare, the whole establishment was found in the best possible order and scrupulously clean. The grounds are beautifully kept, and the garden gives promise of an abundant supply of vegetables and fruit. A better day-room is required for the convalescent patients, and the erection of a proper mortuary should be no longer delayed. The hospital affords accommodation for patients far in excess of its present number, and should be made to serve for a larger district than is at present the case. Dr. Drew continues to have the medical charge, and gave me all the information I needed. The main-tenance-money collected, has not amounted of late to so large a sum as usual, but it is well looked after, and obtained whenever possible. November 27th, 1884.

WAIMATE. ,On my annual visit of inspection to-day, I find that there are six patients under treatment, all are of the male sex, one being a little boy, who is watched over by his sister. All are proper cases for treatment; although one, a boy with disease of the hip-joint, has been resident here since the year 1879. The largest number treated at one time, since my last report, was fourteen. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the Steward and Matron, Mr. .and Mrs. Pettit, continue to maintain the utmost order and cleanliness in every part of the hospital, which has a most comfortable appearance. The Steward is constantly looking out for new apparatus and furniture for the comfort of his patients, and is very successful in procuring private subscriptions for this puipose. I noticed an ingenious mechanical bedstead, procured from America ; an invalid-lift, several reclining-chairs, and some convenient out-door seats; all supplied since my last visit. Another bedstead, the invention of Mr. Pettit, serves many purposes; and, though somewhat cumbrous in construction, exhibits considerable ingenuity. The large male ward has recently been cleaned and painted throughout, as also the kitchen and scullery. This latter portion of the building might, with advantage, be shut off from the rest by folding doors. The ward for females would also be improved by cutting a door-way into the adjoining nurse's room, in place of the present small window. Upon the roof of the hospital are four revolving ventilators; one only of these is connected by a tube with the opening in the ceiling beneath it. This defect should be remedied. The wards are well supplied with cut flowers, which are brought weekly by the pupils in the third class of the public school. The fever hospital is a very well arranged one, and is kept in constant readiness for use. Some cases of measles and erysipelas have recently been treated here, but it is not at present occupied. Some improvements have been made in the grounds ; small lawns have been laid down behind the hospital, and two paddocks, well fenced off in front. Here a cow is kept, which supplies abundance of milk to the hospital; the cost of its purchase was borne by the Steward, The registers are properly kept and maintenance money collected whenever practicable. April 25th, 1885.

WAIPAWA. The Waipawa County Hospital was inspected by me on Sunday, August 17th, 1884, and again visited on August 19th. I found thirteen in-patients under treatment, of whom eleven were men,