18

could wish in the present generation. There is
an apparent disposition on the part of the
Natives to appreciate the benefits of Hospital
treatment more than they have done of late
years. I may mention the case of a Chief of
the Ngapuhi tribe, who came to the Hospital in
September last, begging me to remove a tumour
which had grown to an enormous size during a
series of years. This very important operation
was performed with the most decided success,
and, I have no doubt, will have a very benefi-
cial influence on the native mind when the re-
sult is generally known. A few other opera-
tions have been performed during the year, and
all have terminated successfully.

I will take this opportunity of thanking, in
the most cordial manner, my professional
brethren who have kindly rendered me their
valuable assistance on these occasions, and of
assuring them that, so long as I have the honour
of presiding over this Hospital, I shall always
be happy to afford them access to its wards, and
with the view of extending to the public the
advantages derived from this institution, to
communicate to them any facts which the in-
terests of science and humanity demand should
not be confined within its walls.

Your Honor having announced your inten-
tion of enlarging and improving this Hospital
at the earliest possible period, I deem it unne-
cessary to make any remarks on the limited
amount of accommodation which it at present
affords.

It gives me pleasure to be able to report that
the present Hospital attendants have given me
every satisfaction in the discharge of their
duties.

I cannot conclude without referring to a
grievance which too long existed in connexion
with the Hospital; I allude to the unnecessary
delay experienced in an authority for admission
of patients; your Honor has been
pleased to remove that difficulty by empowering
me to give immediate admission when necessary
—a boon for which the public should ever feel
grateful.

II.—LUNATIC ASYLUM.

The enclosed Tables of patients treated in the
Lunatic Asylum shew only three cases of In-
sanity more than those of 1856; I, however,
think it right to observe that seven other
Lunatics have been under my care in the Hos-
pital, Stockade, and Gaol, and are included in
the returns of these Institutions, giving a total
of 32 Insane patients who have received medi-
cal treatment during the last year.

Two aboriginal natives are included in this
number, one male and one female; the remain-
ing thirty are Europeans, twenty of whom are
males and ten females.

By a reference to the last Census Returns
[vide Provincial Government Gazette, Aug. 14,
1857] it will be observed that the total number
of European inhabitants in the Province of
Auckland is 15,518, and the total number of
European Lunatics being 30, gives 1 insane
person in 517 2/3 inhabitants, whereas the ex-
perience of England shews that there is one
insane person in 796 inhabitants of the agri-
cultural districts, and one in 1149 of the non-
agricultural counties—[vide "Statistics of In-
sanity," by W. C. Hood, M.D., a copy of
which valuable work has lately been forwarded
to me by its talented author.]

If I venture to risk an opinion on the large
predominance of mental disease in this country,
I must do so with great diffidence at present,
the data being far too scanty to allow the forma-
tion of a sound opinion.

The predominance of this fearful malady in
New Zealand is perhaps partly ascribable to
the fact that many of those who emigrate to
this country are of a romantic and unsettled
disposition, and this leads to excesses of
various kinds, which I have no doubt very fre-
quently result in mental disorder.

M. Georget says that, on the continent at
least 95 in every 100 lunatics, have become
lunatic from moral causes; and Esquirol and
Pinel have arrived at a somewhat similar con-
clusion. The experience of Bethlehem Hospital,
as gathered from the tables of ten years, shews
that moral causes predominate to a great ex-
tent in England; and an opposite conclusion, how-
ever, is deducible from my limited experience
in this Colony, at least as regards the men,
physical causes, chiefly intemperance, appear-
ing to me to operate with greatest potency in
the production of insanity among the European
male population.

Moral causes, however, seem to prevail
among the other sex, the women being so in-
fluenced in the proportion of 6 to 10.

There is another feature connected with the
statistics of the Insane in New Zealand which
is worthy of record, and that is, that the ratio
of males is much higher than that of females,
being of males 1 in 431 4/5, and of females 1
in 689 1/2 individuals; the reverse of this ob-
tains in England, plainly attributable to the
fact that the catalogues of the insane are
swelled by large numbers of that class of unmar-
ried females, viz., Governesses and Semptresses,
who are driven mad by penury and want,
while struggling to procure a scanty subsistence
for themselves. This class of women is almost
unknown here, which accounts for the fact
that the domestic condition of our female
lunatics is as follows,—3 married, 2 unmarried,
and 3 widowed.

Insanity among the aboriginal natives is not
infrequent, but as they do not take advantage
of our Institutions here, few cases have come
under my notice. Two cases have, however,
been treated by me during the year, one a male
prisoner, the cause of whose malady was plainly
of a moral character; the other a female, the
cause also a moral one. The prisoner com-
pletely recovered his reason and was afterwards
humanely pardoned by his Excellency Governor
Gore Browne, for which he expresses the
deepest gratitude.

No deaths have occurred among the Insane
during the year.

Doing away with even the appearance of
mechanical restraint in my treatment of
the Insane has been a favourite object
of my ambition. In this I have been
hitherto sadly obstructed by the defective con-
struction of the building, the want of padded
rooms, airing courts, &c., and I have been
driven to use the strait-waistcoat for a short time,
twice during the year, to prevent the patients