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time to get the sanction of the Secretary of State to the increase in the personnel. This recommendation was made in the middle of last summer, beyond the time which I have stated. When you come to examine the facts set out in the answers to the questions of the hon. member you are faced with the conclusion that there has been no great increase of cases treated in the hospitals; no extensions to the hospitals of any material size; nothing to indicate why, suddenly, in the middle of the year 1918, it is considered necessary to increase the staff of the hospitals. There have been many able heads of the Medical Department. Dr. Atkinson himself was the man who introduced the Nursing Staff from Home. For several years before he left the Colony the staff stood as it is now. He never made any recommendations for an increase. Therefore, when I received the recommendation, backed as it was by officers of the department-but that is nothing extraordinary, for some heads of departments are only too ready to recommend increases in their staff-it was not surprising that I should consider it necessary that some justification should be given me for such an increase. I considered that an increase in the probationers' staff would be sufficient. I made that decision on the 11th August, and left the Colony on leave on the following day. Probably, if I had remained here, and it had been represent- cd to me that it was difficult to get probationers, then I might have made some other disposition. As it was, remarks made by the hon. member who represents the Chamber of Commerce when the Estimates were under consideration were brought to my notice when I returned. I inquired whether probationers had been obtained, and as they had not, then I proceeded to thoroughly investigate the conditions of the staff. Well, the conclusion I arrived at was that while the staff was absolutely adequate for the work it has to do, there was no provision for absences during leave. That is in accordance with the policy of this Government; no department is supplied with extra members for filling vacancies caused through leave. I also found a matter which had not been, but required to be, dealt with, and to which I had myself drawn attention before I went on leave; that was the treatment of maternity cases by nurses from general wards. That is a point which ought to be remedied. Taking these two points into consideration, I came to the conclusion since the last meeting of the Council that I would recommend to the Secretary of State an increase of three sisters as a temporary measure pending further investigation as to the disposition of the staff. One of these nurses has been engaged, and we are looking for two more. I trust that that information will be satisfactory to hou. members, and it seems to render quite unnecessary the elaborate committee which they wish to have appointed.
Hon. Mr. Pollock-Does your Excellency mean three sisters in addition to the one coming out at the end of June to supply the vacancy of one of the sisters who got married?
His Excellency-Yes, and I think it would be useful if I just say a word about the work of these sisters. I have the greatest sympathy for them. I have suffered a great deal myself; I passed perhaps eight years of my life in bed when a boy, being nursed, so I know what good nursing means. Now, these sisters here do eight hours' duty out of the twenty-four; that is to say, they have sixteen hours of leisure. At the London Hospital the nurse on day duty goes on at 7 in the morning and remaius on duty till 9.30 p.m., with an interval of three hours off duty out of that time, and the nurse on night duty is on for twelve hours at a spell. In addition, the nursing staff at the London Hospital do the whole of what I may call the menial services; they have no other help or assistance of any kind; they have to wash patients, make the beds, deal with slops, bed pans, etc., carry food and medicines; in fact everything is done by the nursing staff with the exception of scrubbing floors, cleaning stoves, making fires and washing crockery. Now, the sisters here are assisted by no less than 22 ward boys in the Government Civil Hospital and two amahs, and in the Maternity Hospital by five amahs. The whole of the drudgery work is done by this part of the staff. anl in addition there is a staff of coolies to do the housemaid work, so the plea of overwork won't hold water. There is another point I would like to mention, and that is, that as far as 1 can make out there is not any hospital in any Crown Colony of the size of the Civil Hospital that has the same amount of Europeau nursing staff. I have been in the Colony of Fiji, which has a very large medical department, and certainly, we had nothing like the white staff there. The same obtains in Ceylon, and in Singapore and the Straits Settlements. The Empire of India would be ruined if