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Sisters for Kennedy Town Hospital are not required then they do duty at the Government Civil Hospital. When the Private Nursing Sisters are not out nursing they are available for duty at the Government Civil Hospital. At the present time there a e 8 Sisters of the Government Civil Hospital Staff on duty at the Government Civil Hospital and also 2 Private Nursing Sisters who do not happen to be out nursing. There are three Si-ters on duty at the Victoria Hospital. There are none at Kennedy Town Hospital. The Private Nursing Sisters are engaged at private nursing for about 9 months in the year each. them is thus available for 6 months in the year at the Government Civil Hospital. The Kennedy Town Hospital Sisters are for the greater part of the year employed at the Government Civil Hospital.

Question 5-(a.) Two. (b.) Four. (c.) Two.

Une of

Question 6: Que vacancy was filled by the arrival of a Sister on the 30th April, 1914. The second vacancy has been filied and the Sister is expected to arrive at the end of June.

Question 7-It is not possible to ascertain from the statistics kept the largest number of occupied beds which a Sister on night duty has attended to since the 1st of May, 1913. The daily average num- ber of patients in the Civil Hospital in 1913 was 85.6, excluding maternity cases, while two Sisters were on night duty during that period, except during the month of August, when two fairly senior Probationer Nurses each did a fortnight duty instead of a Sister, Two Sisters for night duty has been the recognised number for the last 10 years.

Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock then, in accordance with notice previously given, moved the following resolution :-

That the Governor-in-Council be requested to nominate (under the Com- missioners Powers Ordinance, 1886), five Unofficial Justices of the Peace as Commissioners for the purpose of instituting, making and conducting an enquiry as to the sufficiency in numbers, efficiency, and organisation of the Nursing Staff at the Govern- ment Hospitals and as to their terms of service, pay and allowances.

Hon. Mr. Pollock, in moving the resolution, said-Your Excellency, I beg leave to move the motion of which I have given notice, and as hon, members have it in printed form before them I trust that it may be taken as read. Sir, this motion is a continuation, so to speak, of a request which was made by my hon. friend representing the Chamber of Commerce, when he was speaking on behalf of himself and the other unofficial members of the Council in his speech relating to the Estimates, on October 23rd. 1913, and I think, Sir, that it may be confidently stated that if my hon. friend had then been given the information which was supplied at the last meeting of this Council by the Colonial Secretary, that the request which my hon. friend put forward on the 23rd of October last, for the appointment of a committee of five Unofficial Justices of the Peace to inquire into the nursing staff question at the Government Civil Hospital, would there and then have been pressed home. The fourth question which I put at the last meeting of the Council and the answer which was given to it by the Colonial Secretary are both of them so important that I will crave the indulgence of this Council to read them now. My fourth question was :--

"Was any written representation sent in by the Nurses on the Staff of the Government Civil Hospital to the Principal Civil Medical Officer last summer upon the subject of the insufficiency in num- bers of the Nursing Staff at that Hospital? Will the Govern- ment lay such written representation upon the table of this Coun- cil? Has any answer been sent to such written representation ? If so, will the Government lay such answer upon the table of his Council? What steps, if any, have been taken, and when, to remedy such insufficiency ?"