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1916. NEW ZEALAND.

MENTAL HOSPITALS OF THE DOMINION (REPORT ON) FOR 1915.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

The Hon. the Minister in Charge of Department for the Care of Mental Defectives to His Excellency the Governor. My Lord, — Wellington, 2nd June, 1916. I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency the report of the Inspector-General of Mental Defectives for the year 1915. I have, &c., G. W. Russell, Minister in Charge of Department for the Care of Mental Defectives.

The Inspector-General to the Hon. the Minister in Charge of the Department for the Care of Mental Defectives. Sir,— Wellington, Ist June, 1910. I herewith present the report for the year ended 31st December, 1915. A summary and analysis of the statistical tables in the appendix shows : The number of patients on the register at the beginning of the year was 4,111 (m., 2,408; f., 1,703)j at the end 4,200 (m., 2,448; f., 1,752)— an increase of 89 (m., 40; f., 49). The total number under care during the year was 4,991 (m., 2,869; f,, 2,122), being 135 (m., 11; f., 124) more than in 1914; while the average number resident, 4,094 (in., 2,391; f., 1,703), was 144 (m., 82; f., 62) in excess. The ratio of patients on the register to population, exclusive of Maoris, was 3779 per 10,000 (fii., 4305; f., 3229), or 1 patient in 265 (m., 232; f., 310); including Maoris—their number on the register is 32 onlv —the figures are 3644 per 10,000 (in., 4146; f., 31' 16), or 1 in 274 (m., 241; f., 321). The admissions (excluding transfers —in., 11; f., 58) numbered 811 (in., 450; f., 361); the male admissions were 59 lower and the female 2 higher than in the previous year. Among these admissions arc included 12 immigrants (2 with a history of previous attacks) who had been here for less than a year. Of the total admissions, about one-fifth were patients who had previously been treated to recovery in our institutions, leaving the number of first admissions 651 (m., 378; f., 273), a decrease, compared with 1914, of 83 (m., 62; f., 21). The ratio of admissions to population (excluding Maoris) was 720 per 10,000, and for first admissions 587; or, in other words, every 1,388 persons in the general population contributed an admission, and every 1,705 a first admission, figures which are an improvement upon the previous decennial average,

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