H.—22

1903. NEW ZEALAND.

HOSPITALS AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS OF THE COLONY (REPORT ON THE), BY THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

The Inspector-General op Hospitals and Charitable Institutions to the Hon. the Minister for Public Works. 2nd July, 1903. The total expenditure on charitable aid in New Zealand in 1901 was £79,873; in 1902, £88,848; for the year ending the 31st March, 1903, it amounts to £93,158. The amount distributed in outdoor relief for the year ending the 31st March, 1902, was £38,934; for the year ending the 31st March, 1903, it amounts to £43,421. In the four larger towns the expenditure on outdoor relief alone is as follows : Auckland Charitable Aid Board, £4,923 ; Christchurch Charitable Aid Board, £7,356 ; Dunedin Benevolent Trust, £6,048 ; Wellington Benevolent Trust, £4,685. It will be seen that there is considerable increase in outdoor relief all along the line. The Wellington Benevolent Trust has increased its outdoor relief during the past year by £1,305. It is a fact accepted by all careful students of social science that pauperism grows by giving. Too-freely administered outdoor relief merely intensifies the evil its administrators desire to mitigate. Of the charitable institutions for old and destitute persons, the Ohiro Home, Wellington, the Jubilee Home, Christchurch, and Tuarangi, Ashburton, are the most satisfactory: the food, clothing, cleanliness, and comfort of the inmates all that could be wished. At the Jubilee Home everything possible is done for the comfort and well-being of the old folk by the indefatigable Matron, Miss Higgins, and the Charitable Aid Board spends ungrudgingly whatever is necessary to keep the Jubilee Home at a high standard of comfort. At the Ohiro Home Mr. and Mrs. Purvis are very successful managers, and the transformation in food, clothing, and comfort effected here within the last few years is admirable. At Tuarangi Mr. and Mrs. Morrissey have only old-men inmates —no women —and they are kind and judicious in their management. Lome Farm, near Invercargill, does not quite come under the category of the above-mentioned institutions, as it is not solely for the benefit of the aged. Mr. and Mrs. Cusworth have under their charge thirty-four children, and also some twenty old men, who are able to do a little farming and gardening. This institution continues to deserve praise, and is a credit to its managers and to the Southland Charitable Aid Board. At the Old Men's Home, Invercargill, the decrepit, bedridden, and feeble aged are carefully looked after by Mr. and Mrs. Cole. The Benevolent Institution, Caversham, is still overfull and understaffed. Mr. and Mrs. Mcc have about 270 inmates under their care, a large number of these being bedridden, paralysed, or enfeebled with senility, and yet the Master and Matron have no officers to assist them, excepting for a succession of nurses (unpaid) who come for three-month periods to assist with maternity cases. Many years ago, before the new buildings began to be erected, I did my best to impress upon the Trustees how unwise it was to erect new buildings on so small a piece of ground, amounting to not more than eight acres and a half. Now the time has come when even the blind can see that a great mistake has been made in placing so many expensive buildings on so small a site. A piece of good land must be obtained somewhere in the Taieri, and a building erected to be worked in connection with the central institution. The Costley Home, Auckland, is in much the same condition as the previous year, the only change being that Miss Mills has replaced Miss Phillips as Matron. The structural changes which I recommended on my visit in September had not been carried out on my visit in the following March. New beds are needed all through, I—H. 22.