Lunatic Asylums, shewing the general constitution and mode of government, the rules as to admission and discharge, with copy of order or certificate for admission, the powers of the Resident Medical Officer, and of the Visiting Physician (if any), whether the Medical Officer is allowed to practise out of the Asylum, and, if the Medical Officer be non-resident, what is the length and frequency of his daily or other attendance, and in whom the immediate management and care of the patients is vested.

2. The income, shewing the sources whence derived, and the weekly or other rates of payment for maintenance.

3. Arrangements as to books and accounts.

4. The site, specifying elevation and aspect, and total quantity of land, distinguishing ground occupied by buildings and airing courts, gardens, or land under spade cultivation, or otherwise available for out-door occupation.

5. The sewerage and drainage, and position and state of the latrines.

6. The water supply, specifying sources, quality, and amount.

7. Baths and lavatories.

8. Internal structure, shewing the cubical contents of the day-room and corridors used by patients, associated dormitories, and single sleeping-rooms for single sex, and proportion of beds to cubic space, and arrangements for heating, artificial adaptations to climate, and arrangements for ventilation, coolness, and warmth.

9. The arrangements for the classification, distribution, and separation of the patients by day and by night respectively, and the arrangements for exercise, employment, and recreation.

10. The dietary.

11. Practice as to mechanical restraint and seclusion respectively; to what extent and for what reasons employed; and in cases of restraint, by what means, by whose authority, and what records thereof kept.

12. The numbers of patients for which the Asylum was built, specifying of what classes, and distinguishing the sexes and the average numbers actually accommodated, and the maximum, largest and smallest numbers that have been accommodated at one time within the last five years.

13. The numbers of officers, and of day attendants or nurses and night attendants or nurses respectively, distinguishing the sexes and shewing the proportion which the attendants of each sex bear to the patients of the same sex; and stating whether all or what numbers of the officers and attendants of each sex reside within the walls, and their salaries, wages, and allowances, and whether or not boarded.

14. The average time for which patients remain in the Asylum, calculated on a period of five years.

15. The average number of patients annually admitted, calculated on a period of five years.

16. The proportion borne to the average number of patients in the Asylum by the number who are annually and by the number annually discharged, cured or convalescent, calculated on a period of five years.

17. The causes of death during the last five years.

18. What reports and records (medical or other) are kept.

19. What provisions for religious services.

20. The arrangements for visitation and inspection by higher civil authorities, whether and how often the Asylum is visited and inspected by the Governor himself, and whether the visits be political or occasional, and if occasional, whether they be visits after notice given or visits of surprise, or both.

21. Whether periodical reports and returns are furnished to the Governor of the state or the Asylum, and of the statistical details connected with it.

Dispatch from Secretary of State, as to collection of Aerolites for the British Museum.

Colonial Secretary’s Office,
New Plymouth, 26th May, 1863.

THE following Dispatch, with its enclosures, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, is published for general information.

— ALFRED DOMETT.

Downing Street, Feb. 9th 1863.

Sir,—I transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Deputy Principal Librarian of the British Museum, expressing the desire of the Trustees of that Institution to obtain, as an accession to their present collection of Aerolites, such specimens as may in future come into possession, or be procurable by the public functionaries in the British Colonies. I also transmit to you certain papers referred to in the enclosed letter, and I should be glad if you would make the contents of these papers known in the Colony under your Government, in such manner as may be best calculated to forward the views of the Trustees, and also