9

H.—lo.

The Eegister of Admissions continues to be kept in a very unsatisfactory manner, and is full of errors. Most of the numbers affixed to each patient's name, as the numbers in order of admission, are incorrect. Patients who have been liberated merely on trial, under the 64th clause of " The Lunatics Act," and have been replaced in the Asylum, are re-entered in the Register, sometimes under a new number, sometimes without. Most of the patients are received into the Asylum under two orders, one granted by a Eesident Magistrate under the 11th clause, and the second granted by a policeman or other person under the 15th clause of " The Lunatics Act, 1868." Divine service is performed in the dining hall on Thursdays by a clergyman, and on a Sunday by a lay reader. From 35 to 40 of the inmates attend. Three of the attendants are at present off duty from sickness ; two of them are believed to be suffering from typhoid fever, and have been removed —-one to the hospital, and the other to his own house. The Medical Superintendent has also been unable, from illness, to visit the male department for the last two or three days. Three extra attendants have been engaged temporarily in place of those on the sick list; and a medical practitioner from town is doing duty to a certain extent for Dr. Aickin. The occurrence of typhoid fever in this crowded community, and in a building the drainage system of which is utterly abominable, is a matter of very serious concern. The suggestions which I made on my first visit regarding the drainage have only been partially carried out, and that in such a way as to make a very doubtful improvement. One of the sewage tanks complained of has been demolished, and the almost stagnant sewage is allowed to escape through the Asylum grounds by means of an open drain. But the other tank still remains, and, in combination with the closets and urinals placed above, forms a most disgusting and unhealthy contrivance. This tank was stated by the head attendant to have been only twice cleaned out within the last year. The chamber above it, in which are contained the closets and urinals, has not even a window, and can only be ventilated by means of the door, which has to be left open for this purpose and for the convenience of the patients. The stench in it was quite overpowering. The sooner this tank is abolished and proper water-closets and urinals erected the better. Meantime the cleaning of these places should receive much more attention than is now given. FtTBTHEE PeOVISION. Males. Females. Total. At present there is Asylum accommodation of one kind or another for ... 358 281 639 And the number of patients in Asylums at this date is ... ... 595 303 898 So that the excess over the accommodation is ... 237 22 259 This statement, however, simply shows that there are at present 259 patients for whom there is no accommodation of any kind, and who are crowding the Asylums to such an extent as to render their proper management quite impossible; but it takes no notice of the utterly unsuitable nature of a large amount of the existing accommodation, nor of the rapid rate at which the number of lunatics is increasing ; and therefore it does not, in my opinion, indicate the amount of additional accommodation which is really required. The existing accommodation of a satisfactory nature is very limited. The Dunedin Asylum was originally only intended as a temporary one. The badness of its plan of construction, the extreme publicity of its site, and the small quantity of land it possesses (10 acres) damn it completely, even for its original purpose, much more as a permanent institution. The male department of the Christchurch Asylum is an old, badly-constructed, fast-decaying, and already dangerously-rotten building; it is doubtful if some parts of it will hold together in a habitable state till the proposed new building is erected. Of the Wellington Asylum, the front part only (which has room for 40 patients) is satisfactory. The remainder is altogether to be condemned. The Napier Asylum is not, properly speaking, an Asylum at all. It is merely a small building within the gaol grounds, which is only fit for temporary occupation by persons committed " on remand for medical examination " during a transient attack of mental disturbance brought on by drinking, or by acute cases, pending the making of arrangements for their removal to another Asylum. The New Plymouth A sylum is hardly even fit for the above purposes, and its accommodation cannot be taken into consideration at all. Of the Auckland Asylum only the male wing has as yet been built. It contains accommodation for 50 patients. The old hospital, in which the women are at present located, is a fast-decaying building, totally unfitted by its structure and situation to he anything but an inconvenient, temporary residence till the proposed new wing is added to the Asylum. When these things are taken into consideration,

Males. Females. Total. At Christchurch ... ... ... ... ... — 80 80 Hokitika ... ... ... ... ... 31 9 40 Nelson ... ... ... ... ... 30 30 60 Wellington ... ... ... ... ... 20 20 40 Auckland ... ... ... ... ... 50 — 50 Total ... ... ... ... 131 139 270 And, as the present number of patients is ... ... 595 303 898 There is a deficiency of accommodation for ... ... 464 164 682

Every year there is a great increase in the number of patients. The increase last year was 81, and the average increase for the last five years is 66. Taking the lowest of these figures as representing the probable annual increase for the next two years, there will be, two years hence, 1,030 patients. 2—H. 10.