The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5498, 9 November 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1878 .

A more thoroughly active and energetic community than the present generation of New Zealand colonists could not probably be found in any part of the world. A great work lies before them, and is being taken in hand with an earnestness which already finds its reward in an extraordinary increase in the general wealth and prosperity of the country. Even in places the most remote from the bustle and excitement of the great centres of population, the spirit of progress is stirring, and men show themselves keenly sensitive not only with regard to questions concerning their own private and personal interests, but on larger ones affecting the public welfare. There is rarely a want of suitable candidates at county council or road board elections, and a meeting to urge the construction of a railway, a bridge, or a road, is pretty certain to be well attended. The crowd may be influenced more by direct personal motives and present exigencies than regard for “ the unborn millions ” who people the Premier’s daydreams, but the general tendency, and frequent result of such activity, are for the public good, both now and in the future. In the midst of all this praiseworthy and remunerative liveliness there are a class of questions which on the whole receive far less attention than their vast importance demands. It would be unjust to lay it to the charge of the New Zealand public that they are wilfully unmindful of some of their uoat pressing moral obligations, though painfully alive to anything and everything likely, in their opinion, to enhance or diminish the balance at their bankers. In this respect they aro probably not different from their neighbors ; but the fact remains that whilst the country is almost beside itself on the subject of railvays and harbors, and everything clearly and directly tending to material progresi, or likely to yield a fair percentage on money invested, it troubles itself comparatively very little about such matters as refoimatories, industrial schools, hospitals, and lunatic asylums. To put it plainly, tha’e is always difficulty in gettingsuflicient money, either from public or private sounces, for founding or supporting benevolent institutions of this description. The reformatories and industrial schools are principally remarkable by their absence, the few which have been established being totally and notoriously insufficient for the requirements of the Colony, and the want becoming more urgent every lay that passes over us. The hospitals art in many instances very defective, and some ofjthem are burdened with a weight of ebbt which no exertions on the part of the managing committees are able to wipe jff. Some are to all intents and purposes insolvent, and drag on their existence simply through the forbearance of their eraditors. They are supported partly by Government .aid, and partly by contributions, too often wrung out of an unsympathetic public by means of lotteries, bazaars, and a system of persistent dunning, which methods of persuasion are hot, however, thought to deprive them of ttoir right to be termed “ voluntary.” The existing luna tic asylums aro altogether in the hands of the Government, and sipported by funds voted from time to trno by Parliament. The public has nothing whatever to say to their management, exoept through tho medium of their representatives. We purpose showing very briefly how these representatives luvo done their duty in this matter. The Internal management of the asylums is Regulated by an Act which embodies in lull tho system adopted some years since in the Homo country, and which has there been found to meet the requirements of the case fairly enough. In New Zealand, until tho last year or two, each asylum was under the supervision of a local inspector, who rarely had any special knowledge of the management of lunatics, except- what ha might contrive to pick up subsequently to

his appointment. It was thought advisable that a change should be made in the management, and that one inspector should be appointed for all the asylums in the colony. This change was accordingly carried out, and whatever may be thought of the inspection in times past—and we have nothing to allege against it—the Government of the day made a remarkably judicious selection when they gave the appointment to Dr. Skae, who has since that time continued to hold it. If the remonstrances and adverse reports of former, inspectors were considered of little value because theirauthors possessed no technical knowledge of the subject on which they were writing, the same ob-' jeotion cannot be raised to the reports furnished by Dr. Skae, who is a medical man of good standing, and who for years made the treatment of insanity, and the management of lunatics in asylums his special study before his arrival in the colony. He is therefore qualified to speak with authority, and his dicta should not be lightly disregarded. On turning to his last report we find that the admissions into asylums in this colony during last year were in the proportion of one to 1144 of the general population as estimated by the Registrar-General in March last, which is a considerably higher proportion than obtained in Victoria and New South Wales in 1876; the former showing 1 in 1431, and the latter 1 in 1749. It is also stated to be a higher proportion than is to be found at Home, but the figures are not given. The proportion of recoveries to admissions is stated as 49 72 per cent., which is higher than is usual in long settled countries. At first sight it might be supposed that there cannot be so very much amiss with a system under which there is apparently a larger proportion of recoveries than is recorded elsewhere; but Dr. Skae plainly says that “the comparatively high rate “ of recovery in the asylums of New Zea- “ land is simply due, in so far as it is real, “ to the favorable nature of the cases ad- “ mitted, and certainly not to any special “ excellence in those over-crowded in- “ stitutions.” The rate varies much in different asylums, and where it is high the reason appears to be that an unusually large proportion of persons suffering from delirium tremens have been admitted. On the whole Dr. Skae writes favorably of the manner the keepers and attendants perforin their duties. They do the best they can with the very limited means at their disposal; but the report abounds with complaints about utterly and shamefully deficient accommodation, bad drainage, poor bedding, lack of furniture, defective water supply, and in some asylums a want of suitable work at which to employ patients. A few changes for the better have been recently effected in some of the asylums, and Parliament during its last session voted £45,700 towards enlarged accommodation, which amount may be regarded as the first instalment of the £186,600 which Dr. Skae speaks of as imperatively required for that purpose alone. It is probably intended to spread the expenditure of the full aura over several years, and it is to be hoped that Parliament will deal out supplies with no niggard hand, for the state of things disclosed in this report is simply disgraceful. At Christchurch the male department is said to be “ densely over-crowded,” and the accommodation of a truly wretched description. In some of the dormitories there is only half the usual minimum allowance of air at night. It appears that these poor people must, at the time the report was written, have been hording together more like pigs than human beings. The drainage at the same asylum is described as disgustingly defective. In Wellington the furniture is bad, the wards wretchedly constructed, and there are fully twice the number of patients there is room for. In Nelson there is also a want of furniture, the bedding is not of good quality, there is imperfect ventilation, there is a deficient water supply, and no proper airing ground for the women. At Napier the patients are dressed as prisoners, the bedding is bad, the yards small, and there is not enough water ; there is the same complaint of want of furniture. At the Auckland Asylum, at the time the report was written, things were in a very bad state, partly to be accounted tor by the fire which had taken place a few months before. The women’s wards in the old hospital were said to.be crowded, infested with bugs, and bare of furniture. The water supply at the asylum was deficient, and the drainage utterly abominable. This report of Dr. Skae’s is well worthy of perusal, as showing to what extent the country has hitherto neglected its duty towards the most helpless and miserable section of the human race. Better things are to be looked for in the future, and we are glad to note signs of movement in the right course. It would greatly tend to accelerate the required changes if the public could only be brought to believe that their interest and their duty both point in the same direction, and that it would pay them to provide good accommodation of every description for the lunatic population of the Colony. Wo have only to add that it would bo better if the inspector’s reports were for the future brought up to the end of Juno in each year, instead of up to the end of the previous December. The Act certainly provides for the latter date, but that could easily bo amended, and by substituting June , the record would be brought nearly up to the date when Parliament meets.