The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 280, 3 October 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1879.

The annual report ot the Lunatic Asylums of the colony shows that in December last there were 957 registered lunatics in New Zealand, being an increase of over 87 for the previous year. The proportion of lunatics to the estimated general population at the end of the year was 1 in 451; and at 3rd March, the day for which the census returns were made, 1 in 471-Maoris being excluded. There is a considerable difference in the proportion in the colony among people of different nationalities. At the date of last census lin 311 of the English population was insane, 1 in 264 of the Scotch, 1 in 205 of the Irish, 1 in 221 of the Germans, 1 in 184 of the, Scandinavians, and 1 in 5121 of Europeans born in the colony. The facttliat insanity is chiefly a disease of adult life will largely explain why the last of these proportions is so comparatively small, and why the others are greater than that in England, and may perhaps to a certain extent explain why they -differ so much from each other. The report states that there is, at this date, asylum accommodation—of one kind or another: good, bad, and indifferent—for 494 males, 281 females —total 775 ; and, the number of patients being 656 males, 329 femalestotal, 985, there is an excess of 162 males, 48 females-total 210, over the total amount of asylum accommodation in the colony. For y,>ars past the Inspector of Asylums has complained of the overcrowded state of several of the asylums, in the colony. The Hon. John Hall, speaking on this subject in the House, said he could quote columns after columns on the scandalous manner in which lunatics had been treated, and the Christchurch Asylum was just as bad to-day. Eighteen months ago the attention of the Government had been drawn to these things, but there was no improvement whatever to the present day, although it was true there was a contract in progress. And here were these poor wretches who could not tell their own tale of woe in the most horrible condition. And the same might be said, he believed, of the condition of the lunatics in Wellington. He was quite aware that every Government must make mistakes, and that they were often blamed for the misconduct of their subordinates, but in the instances he had cited the Government was personally responsible, The Premier of the colony always claims credit for humanity, but if, almost within sight of his official residence, lunatics have been huddled together year after year in a cruel and merciless manner, and he with full knowledge of the wretched accommodation placed at their disposal, what credit must be attached to his alleged philantbopical sentiments 1