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erect a shed, which is wanted, if tools and timber were provided. No doubt the other patients in this ward would be glad to assist him, and perhaps learn to be useful in rough carpentering about the place. I recommend that Mr. Seager be allowed some £15 for purchase of a tool-chest, and that, if possible, work should be found for the patient referred to from the Survey or Engineer's Office in copying plans or drawings. 9. Garden. —A garden tool-house and shed for drying seeds and vegetables and for keeping fruit is greatly needed at once, to save much loss of seeds and good vegetables. The old shed is now nearly rotten, in a tumble-down condition, and so leaky as to ruin nearly everything placed in it: it will be false economy to grudge the erection of a new one as soon as possible, before the winter rains set in. Attendants' Cottages. 10. These cottages are all too small for the attendants and their families, and all require looking to before the winter. Petrie's Cottage. —Three rooms, and small back shed separate. Eequires a porch ; is in danger of being burnt down ; when the door is opened the fire is likely to be blown out of the grate. Griffiths' Cottage. —Three rooms and shed separate ; leaks very badly at the ridge-board in all S.W. gales. Two of the rooms are then not fit to sleep in. These leaks could be stopped at a slight expense. Kinsmaun's Cottage. —Two rooms and " lean-to," built by himself. " Lean-to " requires zinc roofing : leaks badly in S.W. rain. Whitelaw's Cottage. —Three rooms. Ventilation very bad; unwholesome for so many inmates. Wraxworthf s Cottage.—Three rooms. Wants a little looking to. These cottages all want a small bit of enclosed ground round them for a garden. They look slovenly and out of keeping with the rest of establishment for want of this inexpensive improvement. Wraxworthy would have a neat and creditable garden at the entrance gate, if his place were enclosed. At present cattle destroy the plants at night, and thus at the first entering the grounds of the Asylum want of neatness meets the eye of a visitor. 11. I am glad to be able to report that the electric battery with alarm bell to the Police and Fire Brigade Stations at Christchurch will soon be in working order. The new building requires to be placed in communication with the old one and the above-named stations. If the Provincial Government will give the order, the cost, lam told, will come within the vote already taken. I beg to recommend that the telegraph wire be extended to this building, and also to the north ward at the same time. It would be very desirable to give the order for this work now that the General Government telegraphists are engaged at the Asylum. 12. Everything about the premises was in the usual satisfactory condition. I have, &c, J. W. Hamilton, Inspector, Sunnyside. His Honor the Superintendent of Canterbury, Christchurch. Appendix. Number of visits made during the year ending May 30, 8. Number of patients seen, varying on each occasion from 123 to 151. Number of miles travelled, not material, Asylum being within a short distance (say two miles) of Christchurch. J. W. H., Inspector, Sunnyside.

HOKITIKA. No. 9. Sib, — Office of Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, Hokitika, 29th January, 1874. I have the honor to report as follows on the Lunatic Asylum at Hokitika, for the year ending December 31,1873 :— Although the accommodation for patients in this institution is very much better than what it formerly was, there are still several matters which need alteration and amendment. At the same time I am satisfied that the medical officer and tho Keeper have done all that they possibly could, with the means at their disposal, to render the inmates comfortable, and in each case to increase the probability of ultimate recovery. In my last report I stated that the County Government had built an Asylum on ground adjoining the Gaol Eeserve, and that the patients formerly kept in the Asylum on the Hospital Eeserves and in the Gaol had been removed to the new quarters provided for them. The experience of eighteen months affords satisfactory proof that, taken as a whole, the buildings are well suited "for the purposes of an asylum for the insane. For a considerable time the bathing accommodation was exceedingly defective, but during the past year this has been entirely remedied. There is still a want of more single rooms for patients whom it may be requisite to keep apart from the other inmates ; and the sleeping accommodation might with advantage be increased. I have also to report that no padded rooms have as yet been provided, and though up to the present time no great inconvenience has been experienced by the want of them, the occasion for their use might at any moment arise. My attention has been particularly called to this matter by tho Keeper, and it has been duly reported to the provincial authorities, and no doubt what is necessary will be done. The number of attendants on the female patients is not, in my opinion, so large as it should be. This has also been represented in the proper quarter. On the whole, however, I must report favourably both of