Following a long-running dispute over funding and the rejection of the findings of a Royal Commission and a Committee of Specialists the Government legislated in 1885 to abolish the Commissioners of the Hospital for the Insane and bring it under the control of the Charitable Grants Department. An element of outside inspection was maintained by providing for three Official Visitors to conduct monthly inspections and report annually to Parliament. The first three Official Visitors were appointed on 18 January 1886. They did not wait for the expiration of a full year, submitting an interim report on 28 June supporting the recommendations of the Royal Commission and making detailed proposals for the development of the Hospital at New Norfolk. They followed this up with monthly reports to the Chief Secretary and repeated the recommendations in their annual report. The Government finally bowed to the inevitable and appropriated some (though not all) of the necessary funding. The Act provided for renewable one year terms for the Official Visitors, of whom one was to be medically qualified and one to be a magistrate. Hospitals were to be inspected monthly by the medical Visitor and at least one of the other two Visitors. A report on their visit was to be forwarded to the Chief Secretary. The Visitors were to report annually to the Parliament. The Act was amended in 1945 to make the Director of Mental Hygiene the third Official Visitor ex officio. (This was altered to Director of Mental Health in 1956.) The Act was further amended in 1951, increasing the number of Official Visitors to four, of whom one was to be a woman. At the same time the Visitors were relieved of the responsibility of reporting annually to Parliament and teh Director of Mental Hygiene was to do so instead. The statutory provisions for the conduct and management of mental hospitals and the treatment of the mentally ill were thoroughly overhauled in 1963 and the resulting Mental Health Act made no provision for Official Visitors. When this Act came into force on 1 December 1964 the Official Visitors ceased to function.~