DUNEDIN LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 805, 4 December 1865, Page 2

DUNEDIN LUNATIC ASYLUM.

(Continued from our last.)

In the remarks contained in our last issue on this subject it was stated that under the direction' of the gentlemen to whose care the Asylum is entrusted the Provincial Surgeon and the Resident Superintendent —many marked improvements had been effected in and around the institution. More than a passing reference, however, should be paid to the manner in which the industry of the patients is utilised, as by their hands, much has been accomplished ; indeed, by this means alone a large portion of the ground around the Asylum has been transformed from its primitive wildness into tasteful gardens, liower plots, neat gravelled walks, &c., and large additions have been made to the buildings. Occupying the front ground is a bowling green, formed and turfed by the inmates, and around it, and running in front of the building, are tasteful bordered walks. Towards the south upwards of two acres of ground hare been laid out and cultivated

by them, the whole now being under crop with vegetables, roots, &c., and interspersed with graceful walks, where, in their leisure hours, the more reliable of the patients are free to ramble. The benefit accruing'from the cultivation of these two acres of soil extends beyond the patients, inasmuch as the produce, as stated in the report, will be ample for the wants of the institution, and thus a very great saving to the Government is effected. ' Behind the Asylum mounds have been removed and the yard levelled, and the whole of the grounds have been enclosed by a high substantial fence. But a greater amount of work still has been accomplished by the labor of the patients. Some ten or twelve months ago the Asylum was found to be too *small for the rapidly increasing number of inmates, but an enlargement by mean# of purchased material and hired labor could only have been effected at a great outlay. At thattime there were standing on the ground on the north side of the institution two large buildings, previously occupied by the 70th Begiment, and left vacant by the removal of the troops to the seat of war, and the idea was conceived of removing them and connecting them with the Asylum. Application was accordingly made to and granted by the Government, and the buildingswere taken to pieces, removed, and reerected, and they now form the right and left extended wings of the Asylum. By this means additional accommodation sufficient for thirt-sixy patients has been provided at a very trifling expenditure. The new wards are each 50 feet in length and' 20 feet in breadth, have vaulted or arched roofs, thereby increasing the cubic space for ventilation, are substantial, thoroughly compact, and handsomely finished inside. But apart altogether from the saving thus effected, the system adopted of awardding distinct duties to those patients able to work must be conducive of the most beneficial results. We remember hearing of an inmate of a lunatic asylum in Scotland declaiming in no measured " termsagainst the absurdity and “ idiocy as he expressed it, of his keepers in compelling him, by means of a hand-barrow, to remove a heap of stones from one place to another and back again to the original spot, and so on throughout the day. “What’s the use of it?” he asked, wearied by his monotonous employment. That was a sensible query, especially so coming from a man manifesting unmistakeable symptoms of imbecility. Even he, with his beclouded, darkened intellect, had sufficient discernment to see that his work was a useless one. There was no change ; he could'ndt comprehend the reason why he was thus employed, and he saw no advantages, no results, accruing from his labor, nothing that could awaken his interest —there was nothing but the same round of filling, wheeling, and emptying, and so he went heartlessly on with his work, and it was to him emphatically a. task, and thus the object aimed at in imposing the duty upon him was entirely lost. The idea has long since exploded that nothing could be done for the mentally deranged—that they were only to be left alone to pine away under their melancholy, or, if violent, simply to be confined within bolts and bars. A more v ise and humane course of treatment has superseded that of less enlightened days, and it is. now acknowledged on all hands that exercise,, bodily and mental—the latter resulting from, and being a necessary consequence of the former—is imperative ; but it: stands - to reason that, if the intellect is to be awakened and the mind exercised, the manual labor must be' of a kind likely to result in something of a satisfactory nature, And what better employment could be provided for the imbecile than that in which the inmates of the Dunedin Asylum have been and are engaged? True, for many days together they have been occupied in the same kind of work, but it has been no useless task, no monotonous round, but a work pointing to great and pleasing results, a work that could not fail to awaken their interest and, more or less, to exeicise the dormant reasoning faculties, and so tend to improve their condition, both in body and mind. From the duties imposed upon them they are made to - understand certain results will follow, and as they proceed with their work they see that these results are being gradually attained, and they are thus made to prosecute their labors cheerfully, not grudgingly as if they felt them to be tasks ; and not only so, but a healthful spirit of emulation is created, inciting them to greater effort and more earnest thought, and, what is of greater importance still, inspiring them with hopefulness and self-reliance. The saving to the Government effected by these improvements is no trifling matter, but it is of little moment in comparison with the benefits which the patients themselves have derived from the exercise in which they’have been engaged. (To be continued.)