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Kingseat (£45,095). The Nurses' Home is almost ready for occupation. A start has been made on the erection of seventeen staff residences. Two villas have been renovated and painted. Reading, drainage, and water-supply services have been extended where necessary. A new glasshouse has been erected. Tokanui (£13,662). The villa for male patients has been completed. The general roading has been improved and extended where necessary. The electrical reticulation has been overhauled. Porirua (£6,843). A suitable building for occupational therapy work has been provided by alteration of the old workshop. Extensive repairs to the cow-byres have been started. Work on the sewerage system has continued during the year. Nelson and Ngawhatu (£34,119). Three male villas have been completed. Roading has been extended and improved. Hokitika (£10,233). A new butcher's shop is in course of erection. The new Nurses' Home is nearing completion. Extensions to the laundry and installation of new machinery will be completed at an early date. Improvements have been carried out to the water-supply. Christchurch (£6,032). Alterations have been made to the main store. New laundry equipment has been installed. Templeton Farm Colony (£7,294). A new male villa is in course of erection. Seacliff (£707). The telephone system has been overhauled. The water-supply has been improved. Programme for Current Year. Subject to modification due to war conditions, the principal proposals for the ensuing year are Auckland. —It is proposed to rebuild the boiler-house on a new site. It is hoped to provide an occupational block for Male 3 patients. Kingseat.—Seventeen staff cottages are being erected. Tokanui. —Negotiations have been entered into with the County Council for the tar-sealing of the Otorohanga - Te Mawhai Road. Plans are well forwarded for the new services block. Porirua. —The provision of separate dining-rooms, additional office accommodation, and enlargement of the main hall are all under consideration. Nelson. —Plans are in preparation for the rebuilding on the villa system of the old Nelson City Mental Hospital. Hokitika.—The Nurses's Home is in course of erection, and its completion will pave the way for additional store accommodation. Christchurch. —A new villa at Jenkins Farm is under construction. Improvements to the children's playground and the erection of additional farm sheds at Templeton are to be proceeded with. Seacliff. —The main building at Waitati is overdue for replacement and plans are being considered. The Staff. Our male stafl has made a good response to the call to service, and four of our medical officers and one hundred other officers from the clerical, nursing, and artisan staff have gone overseas. Most of the staff who are eligible have been and are being released for training in the territorial camps. These absent officers have been replaced, so far as possible, by the engagement on a temporary basis of men ineligible for service, and so far we have had remarkably little interruptions of normal routine. Many of our senior officers have sons and daughters on active service, and to them we extend good wishes for health and safety. As could be expected, many of our nurses have married men about to go on active service, and we have so far as possible retained their services, thus benefiting both the nurse and the Department. The shortage of suitable female trainees persists, and it is little consolation to know that a similar scarcity is being experienced in other countries.

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