H.—_.

8

An excellent new kitchen-range is now being built in, and water is being laid on to the house from the city pipes. These improvements will tend greatly to promote comfort, cleanliness, and safety, and will do away with much annoying and needless labour. Meantime, while these and some other muchrequired alterations are being carried on, a good deal of confusion exists, as well as extra difficulty in the management of the patients, several of the more troublesome of whom are secluded, for fear of accident or mischief. The roof of the whole building is in a very dilapidated condition, and when tho wind is blowing from certain directions the rain gets into almost every room in the house. It gets very freely into the front male ward, where five or six buckets have to be carefully adjusted so as to catch it; but even this does not hinder a large area of the floor being wet, as I observed on the 29th. The wards and bedding were clean, and in good order. The day-room of the front female ward is greatly improved by having been re-papered. The corresponding room on the male side is very dingy, and much in need of being re-papered ; but it is obviously no use doing this until the roof is repaired, Since last report the Asylum has been completely re-painted on the outside, principally by a convalescent patient, and a great improvement has thus been effected in its appearance. With a few exceptions, the patients were quiet and orderly. Most of them, as in all asylum communities, are incurable, and this is too obviously the ease with a largo portion of the recent admissions, among whom recoveries are principally looked for. The general health of the patients is surprisingly good ; their diet is abundant. A considerable majority, especially of the men, are usefully employed, and get plenty of fresh air when the weather permits. The clothing of many of the men was noticed to be evidently insufficient for this inclement season. This should be remedied at once. The patients should be dressed at least as warmly as the attendants —strong, active men constantly moving about —and should each be supplied with flannels, and a coat and waistcoat of stout tweed. It is too late to wait till they have the sense to complain of the cold, and it must not be assumed that, since they do not suffer from bronchitis, &c, they are not injuriously affected by it. A little more attention might with advantage be bestowed on neatness and tidiness of dress, both among the men and the women. One male and two female patients are at present under restraint, on account of mischievous and dangerous propensities. The male patient, in addition to having his arms restrained, had, for some time previous to the first day of this inspection, been fastened into his bed during the night, owing to his prolonged want of sleep, and filthy and destructive habits. But, on disapproeal of this treatment being expressed, it was discontinued. To restrain a patient in this way can hardly ever be beneficial or necessary, except for surgical reasons. It is apt to result in serious accidents, and, if remembered by the patient when recovered, and unable to believe it was ever requisite, may become the foundation for a charge of ill-usage against his attendant which it may be impossible to disprove. It was observed with much pleasure that a patient who for years had been accustomed to being fastened by a belt into a specially-made chair, owing to her violent and impulsive disposition, is now managed entirely without restraint of any kind during the day. She is, at present, however, subjected to restraint at night, though this also had been abandoned until recently, when it had to be resumed as one of the many evil consequences of excessive crowding. It appears from the medical journal that, considering the adverse circumstances amidst which the management is conducted, both restraint and seclusion are used to a very limited extent, though much more than would be requisite under ordinary conditions. Seventeen men and eight women are restricted for exercise to the airing-grounds. Though these numbers are not great, and are largely made up of feeble, demented cases; still, in view of the wretched places which these yards are, they are much greater than is desirable, and every effort should be made to reduce them. Of the three imbecile children whose cases were formerly commented on as being unsuitable for a lunatic asylum—one has been discharged greatly improved; another, who was bedridden, has been happily released by death from a life of pain ; and the third, a cheerful little boy, is learning gardening and bad language under the good and evil influences to which he is exposed. Since last report in February there have been thirty-nine admissions, twenty-four discharges, and three deaths. Two of the patients admitted were immigrants, who were committed as lunatics on their arrival. Another is an epileptic imbecile, who is occasionally violent, and who was received on an order by the Colonial Secretary under the 50th section of the Lunatics Act. This appears to be the first instance of a patient being committed to an asylum under this clause, and the publicity which has been given to the case appears likely to reveal the existence of a larger number of idiots and imbeciles whose management is undertaken by their relatives than has hitherto been suspected. The last admission on the list is that of an imbecile, one of a family of eight, all of whom are said to be more or less weak-minded. One of the deaths is ascribed to general paralysis and apoplexy, another to constitutional debility and paralysis. The third, that of a female suffering from insanity brought on by excessive drinking, was a suicide. At the coroner's inquest held in this case the jury appended a rider to their verdict, to the effect that the construction of the asylum did not admit of proper supervision being maintained, with which every one acquainted with the asylum must entirely agree. The patient had been suicidal on admission, but was recovering, and the officers, having ceased to be apprehensive of her attempting self-destruction, had placed her, on account of her quarrelsomeness, in a room by herself, where she was found in the morning suspended from the iron bar of the window by a strip of calico. Accidents of this sort show that one cannot be too much on one's guard against the cunning and dissimulation of suicidal patients, who, if really bent on their purpose, are almost sure to accomplish it by some means or other, unless mechanically restrained, or kept under observation which is not remitted for a single minute night or day. Tho staff of officers has been increased since last report by a laundress and additional female attendant, aird is now in the proportion to the numbers of the inmates usually considered sufficient; but the extraordinary construction of the building throws most provoking obstacles in the way, and prevents a thoroughly satisfactory supervision being maintained over the patients. It is feared that an unfortunate accident which befell the matron has caused a certain amount of permanent lameness,