The Inspector of Public Charities was a person appointed by the New South Wales Government under the Public Institutions Inspection Act 1866 to inquire into the management of all hospitals, infirmaries, orphan schools and charitable institutions that received government funds. In 1886 areas of responsibility that the Inspector of Public Charities reported upon included the Government Asylums for the Infirm and Destitute, Sydney Hospital, Prince Alfred Hospital, the Sick Children’s Hospital, Glebe, the Coast Hospital, Little Bay, Country Hospitals, the Benevolent Society’s Asylum, the State Children’s Relief Department, the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, the Industrial Institution for the Blind, the Children’s Home, Ashfield, the Nautical School Ship Vernon, the Female Industrial School, Biloela, Schools of Arts and Mechanics’ Institutes. The Office of the Inspector of Public Charities was part of the Chief Secretary’s Department and was replaced by the Department of Charitable Institutions in 1888.