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only fourteen acres of ground attached to the Asylum, and even this small quantity is intersected by a public road, which reduces the extent of ground available for the use of the patients to ten acres. An Asylum for 200 patients with only ten acres of land cannot possibly be well managed, for the obvious reason that the patients cannot have the out-door exercise and employment which, of all the curative influences which can be brought to bear upon insanity, have been found by experience to be the most powerful and important. The site, such as it is, has been turned to the best account. A large portion is occupied by a garden and a nice bowling green, and flower beds have been made in front of the house, and a great part of the remainder, which w*as very hilly, is being levelled, and so gives occupation to a certain number of the patients. The hill, however, will soon be gone, and with it the occupation of the patients. As it is, there are only some twenty men employed in the grounds out of a total male population of 162. The Asylum, all except the original narrow frontage, has been built by the Superintendent, Mr. Hume, according to his own plans. The original building for thirtysix patients cost about £6,000, and the enormous additions made by Mr. Hume, which render it capable of accommodating, or at any rate of holding, over 200, cost only about £8,000. The Asylum, as a whole, bears very distinctly the impress of the circumstances under which it has been built. Viewed as the work of Mr. Hume, it is a monument to his energy and ability, which reflects on him great credit; but viewed as an institution for the treatment of the insane, it is a meagre, attenuated structure, much of which is in truth less of an Asylum than a prison, to which there is nothing inferior in the colony except the " back ward " of the Wellington Asylum. The male department is divided into three wards. The first ward consists of a corridor, day-room, attendants' dining-room, lavatory and bath-room, and two dormitories, between which is a short passage, with bedroom for two attendants on one side, and a single sleeping room for a patient on the other. The windows of the day-room look out to the front garden, and those of the corridor, which is wide enough to serve as another day-room, look into the little airing court attached to this ward. The windows, like almost all the others in the building, are protected by iron bars. The walls are painted aud decorated with pictures. There is a bagatelle board for the amusement of the patients, and several books and newspapers were lying about the day-room, which is furnished with tables, narrow backless benches, some Windsor chairs, and a sofa. There is a door from this ward plated with sheet-iron leading out to the garden. The first dormitory, which is meant for eight beds, now contains ten, is fresh and well ventilated. It is lighted by three windows, which are barred, aud furnished with wooden shutters, which do not cover the top of the window, which is loft open.all night. The room, like all other parts of the house, is exceedingly clean, but very bare. The bedsteads are of iron. The bedding consists of straw mattresses, hair pillows, two good strong linen sheets (changed every week), one large blanket (two are given in winter), and a woollen coverlet. The beds are very clean and tidy. The second dormitory is similarly furnished, and is nicely painted, which gives it a cheerful appearance, and it is very carefully ventilated. There are six tin basins in the lavatory, and a large zinc bath supplied with a coldwater tap. All the hot water has to be carried, which is very inconvenient, and nine patients are bathed in the same water, which is very objectionable and cannot be pleasant for the ninth. There are looking-glasses, brushes, and combs for the use of the patients. The patients of this ward were seen at their dinner, which was very good. A white cloth is spread on the table; enamelled basins and iron or horn spoons, but no knives or forks, are supplied to the patients. The airing court for this ward is far too small, and is hemmed in on all sides by buildings. It is stone-flagged aud provided with a verandah. This is the only ward on the male side which at all approaches to what an Asylum ward ought to be ; and if more comfortably furnished and better ornamented, it might do for a smaller number of patients than it now contains; but at present it looks dull and cheerless, and it affords very pinched accommodation for the thirty-nine patients and four attendants it contains. The second ward is entered from the first by a short passage, opening on to which are a small scullery, lavatory and bath-room, and attendants' room. This is the refractory ward, and contains fifty-six patients and four attendants, is 60 feet 6 inches long by 12 feet 7 inches wide, and about 14 feet high at one side, but the roof slopes towards the windows, which are seven in number, and on the south side. On the north side there is a range of eight single rooms, and a door into the airing court. The furniture consists of two long tables down the centre, several benches, and heavy iron fenders to protect the fire-places at each end of the room. The windows are guarded with iron bars, and the room is bare aud uncomfortable. The single rooms are all lighted from the roof, except two, which are lighted from an adjoining dormitory. One of them, which is occupied by an attendant, serves also as the passage into the first dormitory of this ward, which projects northwards at right angles to the range of building in which the day-room is. The dormitory is 31 feet 4 inches by 19 feet 6 inches, and about 13 feet high. It is only lighted from the roof by four windows, with wire netting over them. There are also three ventilators in the roof. The room contains seventeen beds. At the far end of this dormitory is a door into a small one, occupied by six patients, four of whom are epileptic. It also is lighted only from the roof by three windows. A door ofl' this room opens into another, which is at present used as a carpenters' shop, but is intended to be a sleeping-room for eight patients. It has a door into tho exercise yard, and another into the kitchen court. In connection with this refractory ward is a very objectionable block of building, consisting of two short cross passages, parallel with the range of dormitories last mentioned, one of which has five and the other four cells for violent patients opening into it. Two of these cells have asphalted floors, one of them is lined with sheet-iron. The doors are fastened with padlocks. All the single rooms in connection with this ward are too small, especially in view of the fact that they are liable to be occupied night and day for weeks together by violent and dangerous patients, who, owing to the crowded and insufficient accommodation, cannot be trusted out of seclusion. They are all lighted only from the roof, which renders their proper ventilation more difficult; several of them, as well as the dormitory of this ward, when visited on wet days, had a very close, oppressive smell. The exercise yard is enclosed on all sides by the building, and is totally insufficient for its purpose, being only 64 feet by 36 feet. It is stone-paved, except on the side facing the north, along the whole length of which there is a verandah with wooden floor. This dreary yard is the only place in which the fifty or more patients in the refractory ward can take exercise. It is crowded with the