H.—B.

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door opening out into a pretty little garden. It is rather better furnished and decorated. The single sleeping-rooms are similarly furnished to those on the male side. The dormitory is well lighted and ventilated on two sides by large windows, which open freely, and are provided with shutters on the outside, but there is no gas. There are seven beds in it, which is evidently at least three too many, as each bed has under 300 cubic feet of air. The water-closet is well separated from the house, by being placed at the end of a projecting passage. Tho kitchen is furnished with an ordinary cooking-range, but this was not found to work well; and two small gas stoves are now used instead, and found to be very convenient and economical. The roof of the kitchen was originally much too low, and has been raised by prison labour under the superintendence of the Keeper. The building which has been described has been supplemented by some obviously necessary additions, all of which, to the great credit of Mr. Gribben, have been entirely built by the patients and attendants —not one of whom was a carpenter to trade—under his superintendence. These consist of bath-rooms for the male and female patients, two rooms for the male attendants, lavatories and . water-closets for the male patients, a very nice billiard-room and reading-room, with an office and store. There are two airing courts at the back of the building. The one for the males is enclosed in a high fence, and has a sunshed in the centre :it is very little used. The one for the women is not entirely closed, having an open pathway leading round to the front. No female patients are restricted to the airing court. There are large gardens prettily laid out, and furnished with seats, in front of both sides of the house, to which the patients have free access, as the day-rooms open out on them. A large portion of the cleared ground at the back of the Asylum is also laid out as an ornamental and vegetable garden. The only water supply is the rain water, which is collected from the roof in tanks. The patients are bathed once a week, but there is a deficient supply of hot water, which has to be brought from the female side —an arangement which is found very inconvenient. The baths are of zinc. As many as seven patients have sometimes to be bathed in the same water. A thermometer is always used, and the temperature is never allowed to be over 96. Two attendants are always present when the patients are bathed. The lavatories on both sides of the house are well supplied with brushes, combs, and lookingglasses. There are at present forty-three males and fifteen females, so that the Asylum is very seriously overcrowded, and the male day-room has to be used as a dormitory at night. The patients are very clean and tidy both in their person and in their dress, and they seem an exceptionally healthy community. They are remarkably quiet, contented, and well behaved. The chief cause of this seems to be the very unusual extent to which they are engaged in healthy, interesting occupations. All the women, except one who is blind, and all the men, except six, are got to work in some way or another. On the 18th December I made a note of the patients whom I saw employed, which is as follows : —Women : Twelve engaged in washing, two in housework at Keeper's house. Men: Twenty in paddock felling and rooting trees, &c, four sawing wood at saw-pit made by themselves, one gardening, one a blacksmith working at a forge which had been put up by himself, one feeding cows, two painting the male wards, one a tailor making clothes for the male patients, one doing carpenter-work; total, 31. Besides these, seven others do light work about the house or garden, and there are only five males altogether —of whom two are blind, two are general paralytics, and one is an idiot boy—who cannot be engaged in employment of some kind or another. It is quite a pleasure to see the energy and interest with which the patients engage in their work, and the obviously good effect it has upon them. The recreation of the patients is also well attended to. All the women, except the bliud one and about thirty of the men, in parties of thirteen at a time, go for occasional walks beyond the Asylum grounds; and parties of the men go to the theatre, circus, races, &c, an enjoyment from which the women are unfortunately debarred by the want ofa horse and conveyance. There is a regular weekly ball, at which most of the patients are present, which costs the Asylum nothing, as the music is supplied by the attendants and personal friends of the Keeper; and there is a piano and good billiard table, which were got by subscriptions; and a fair supply of books and newspapers in the reading-room. There is no proper washing-house or laundry. The clothes are washed in the female bath-room, and in wet weather they have to be dried in the day-room, which is found a great inconvenience. The present system of sewerage can only be regarded as a temporary arrangement. The pails from the closets are emptied daily, and the number of patients being small no difficulty is found in keeping the closets fresh and clean; but the- drain from the bath-rooms, lavatories, &c, discharges at the foot of the terrace in front of the Asylum, and this will probably be complained of and have to be altered at no distant date. All the patients were seen at dinner, which was abundant, well cooked, and neatly served. The table was covered with white cloth, and the patients were supplied with knives, forks, and spoons, and ordinary earthenware plates. Three cows are kept for the use of the patients. No pigs are kept: there is said not to be sufficient wash for them. Pea-fowls and Chinese pheasants are kept for the amusement of the patients. The staff consists of Keeper and clerk at £275, with unfurnished house, garden, vegetables, fire, and light; the Matron (wifeof Keeper), £75; three male attendants and one male night attendant at 9s. 6d. a day, without rations ; two female attendants, one of whom acts as cook and the other as laundress, at £65 per annum, with rations. There is no chaplain nor regular Sunday service. An Anglican and a Catholic clergymen occasionally visit the Asylum, but no service has been held for fully six weeks. Archdeacon Harper used to visit the Asylum every alternate Sunday.

Dunedin Lunatic Asylum. Inspected 28th and 29th December, 1876, and Ist and 3rd January, 1877. The front portion of this Asylum was built in 1862 to hold thirty-six patients. It was only intended to be a temporary building, but it has been gradually extended backwards by successive additions made to meet the constantly increasing demand for accommodation, and it now contains 228 patients. The site is a very unsuitable one for so large an Asylum. It is almost in the town, and the whole grounds, buildings, and airing courts are completely exposed to the public view. There are