Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/243

Rh by Dr. Hulme in the capacity of Provincial Surgeon, which position the latter gentleman held up to his death in 1876. A visiting committee was also appointed in the first years, and that system of inspection was continued until the transference of the Hospital to King street; whilst independently of the visiting committee, the successive Superintendents of the Province ever took a direct and active interest in the institution's welfare. The control of the Hospital, however, was in the hands of Dr. Hulme. In 1863, owing to the tremendous increase in the number of patients, and with the view of relieving Dr. Hulme of the great responsibility attaching to the general affairs of the institution, the experiment was tried of entrusting the general management to a Superintendent; but it did not give satisfaction. In lieu of an independent Superintendent, therefore, a Secretary was appointed, and, with that officer resident in the Hospital, the control reverted to Dr. Hulme. Mr. Marcus Hume was the Secretary then placed in office; and in the year 1876 he was succeeded by Mr. Burns, now in charge, and under whom the principal improvements in the building and grounds have been carried out. Another change occurred in 1876, when the Hospital, with all other Provincial Government Institutions, passed into the hands of the General Government, who appointed a managing committee, of which Mr. A. C. Strode was for several years chairman; and upon that gentleman's retirement and removal to England, he was succeeded by Mr. Henry Houghton, who, after devoting in the course of the years much of his time to the interests of the institution, still holds that honourable position. A further change took place in 1885, when the Hospitals and Charitable Aid Act was passed, and since then the Hospital has been in charge of Trustees, annually elected by voluntary subscribers to the institution, and by the contributing bodies within the Hospital district. Prior to the passing of the Act of 1885, patients from all parts of Otago were freely admitted; but as the Act makes each district responsible for its own poor, payment for invalids received into the City Hospital from outside districts must now be guaranteed.

There has also from the first been great fluctuation in the number of inmates. While for over two years after the Hospital