Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.

Vol. XXIII.] SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1874. [No. 10.

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE OF THE AUCKLAND PROVINCIAL LUNATIC ASYLUM.—1873.

Auckland Provincial Lunatic Asylum,
30th January, 1874.

SIR,—I have the honor to present the Seventh Annual Report of this Asylum, showing the number of admissions, discharges, and deaths which occurred during the last year, and containing other particulars relating to its state and general management, also a few suggestions, which may possibly tend (if efficiently carried out) to extend its usefulness in a sanitary point of view, or, at least, render it a more suitable retreat for the mentally afflicted.

There remained in the house on the 1st of January, 1873, one hundred and twenty-five inmates: divided into eighty-five males (three of whom were aboriginals) and forty females, two of whom were aboriginals.

The admissions during the year amounted to fifty-eight: comprising thirty-six males and twenty-two females, three of whom were aboriginals.

The number discharged during the year, as either recovered or improved, amounted to thirty-two: of whom twenty were males and twelve were females, including one aboriginal.

The number of deaths amounted to thirteen: eleven males and two females.

The total number under treatment during the year amounted to one hundred and eighty-three, divided into one hundred and twenty-one males and sixty-two females. Particulars as to distribution of cases are set forth in the Tables appended to this Report.

It will be obvious, on reference to Table No. II., in the Appendix, that insanity has annually increased in this Province, which might possibly be accounted for by the annual increase of population. But the question has been so frequently put—Is insanity more frequent? i.e., Is there a larger proportion of insane to sane persons in this Colony than in the parent country, that I may be permitted briefly to furnish some very remarkable statements, showing that our population is not more liable to this affliction than that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

In the very lucid report for the year 1872 upon Lunatic Asylums in Ireland, presented by command to both Houses of Parliament, by the Commissioners in Lunacy, we find the following statements:—“It would thus appear that, while the asylum accommodation has been increased somewhat more than threefold within the last twenty-five years, the known proportion of insane to the same population has likewise increased to an extent that is rather startling,—the ratio being in 1846 as one to six hundred and sixty-one, and in 1871 a fraction below one to three hundred.” This extraordinary augmentation of numbers is explained by figures (I merely quote totals):—In 1846, the total number of insane was twelve thousand three hundred and ninety-seven; the population the same year was eight million one hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and twenty-four. In 1871, the total number of insane, eighteen thousand three hundred and twenty-seven; the whole population the same year being five million four hundred and two thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine,—thus showing an increase of five thousand nine hundred and thirty insane persons occurring during the same period in which the population at large suffered a diminution of two million seven hundred and seventy-two thousand three hundred and sixty-five.” These statements—the accuracy of which, I presume, will not be questioned, having