  We present a spectroscopic survey of 248 white dwarf candidates within 40 pc
of the Sun; of these 244 are in the southern hemisphere. Observations were
performed mostly with the Very Large Telescope (X-Shooter) and Southern
Astrophysical Research Telescope. Almost all candidates were selected from
$\textit{Gaia}$ Data Release 3 (DR3). We find a total of 246 confirmed white
dwarfs, 209 of which had no previously published spectra, and two main-sequence
star contaminants. Of these, 100 white dwarfs display hydrogen Balmer lines, 69
have featureless spectra, and two show only neutral helium lines. Additionally,
14 white dwarfs display traces of carbon, while 37 have traces of other
elements that are heavier than helium. We observe 36 magnetic white dwarfs
through the detection of Zeeman splitting of their hydrogen Balmer or metal
spectral lines. High spectroscopic completeness (> 97 per cent) has now been
reached, such that we have 1058 confirmed $\textit{Gaia}$ DR3 white dwarfs out
of 1083 candidates within 40 pc of the Sun at all declinations.
