WELLINGTON LUNATIC ASYLUM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4175, 7 August 1874, Page 3

WELLINGTON LUNATIC ASYLUM.

The following annual report on this asylum has been submitted to Parliament ; Wellington, 28th January, 1874. ■Sin, —As Inspector of the Mount View Lunatic Asylum in this City, I have the honor to report to you as follows, pursuant to section 60 of the Lunatics Act, 1868 : This Asylum was lately erected by the Provincial Government of Wellington, upon part of a reserve on the town belt of the City, which was set apart for the purpose, under the provisions of the Wellington City Reserves Act, 1872, at a cost of upwards of £7OOO. The position is well chosen and healthy, and commands extensive views, while the grounds around the Asylum (comprising nearly 70 acres) are diversified in character, and are well adapted for cultivation and ornamental planting. Gardens have already been laid out, which not only afford healthy employment to the male inmates, but also yield a considerable supply of fresh vegetables for the use of the establishment. I am informed that a good deal of ornamental planting will be undertaken during the ensuing winter. Every facility exists for efficient drainage and sewerage, the latter of which could be effected at a moderate cost as soon as a supply of water has been obtained from the waterworks now under construction by the Corporation of Wellington. With regard to the buildings themselves, however, they appear to me to be defective both in design and in execution, and much alteration will be required in order to bring them up to the standard which is now considered necessary in the case of efficient asylums for the insane. This subject has been dealt with in a report to the Visiting Justices, by Drs. Alexander, Johnston and Grace, and by Mr. Prance, the medical attendant to the Asylum, in the substance of which I fully concur, and I am informed that the Provincial Government have signified their willingness to incur the necessary expenditure to meet the suggestions contained in that report, and otherwise to render the institution thoroughly efficient. I have, however, ventured to urge that no extensive additions, or even material alterations in the present buildings, should be made until the establishment has been placed under the superintendence of a skilled medical officer, to whom the plan of any proposed alterations or improvements should be submitted. This is a course strongly urged by Hr. Manning, in the valuable report on Lunatic Asylums presented in 1868 to the Parliament of New South AVales. The Provincial Government have expressed their willingness to provide for the salary of such an officer, and pending his appointment some alterations have been made under my direction, which have tended greatly to improve the drainage and general sanitary condition of the buildings. The Asylum is at present under the management of Mr. H. P. Seager, who is diligent and attentive to his duties and zealous in their discharge, but who has never had any special training for the position he holds. The establishment and the patients are generally kept in a very cleanly condition, and the latter appear to enjoy good bodily health, but I conceive that until they are placed under the charge of a resident medical superintendent having the entire control of the Asylum, the curative purposes of the institution must remain at the minimum of efficiency. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the usefulness of a Lunatic Asylum depends almost entirely upon its being under the undivided charge of a skilled medical officer. I have, therefore, no hesitation in stating, without in any degree desiring to disparage the efforts, either of the present keeper, or of the medical officer who now attends the instiution, that it is not likely to produce efficient results until it has been placed under such charge. I beg specially to call your attention to the absence of any regulations for the management of the Asylum, the entire government being left to the unfettered will of the keeper. The visiting justices and myself have recently obtained the regulations in force in other asylums in this Colony and in Australia, and are about to suggest a code for the Mount View Asylum, but I venture to suggest the expediency of at once providing a general code providing for matters of necessity common to all asylums in the Colony,—l have, &0., William Thos. Locke Thavees. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary.