H.-7

3

immigrants who became insane within a year of landing here contributed 23. The United Kingdom contributed 12, Australia 5 (one of whom had had a previous attack of insanity), other parts of the Empire 2, foreign countries .'i, and the twenty-third was a New-Zealander returning after absence abroad. Ratio of Admissions to Population. —Excluding the Native race (13 male and 3 female patients) and all transfers, the proportion of admissions (whether first or not) and first admissions to the estimated general population stands respectively ai 7*70 and 6 - 23 per 10,000, or, in other words, every 1.290 persons in the general population contributed an admission nnd every 1,604 a first admission. Hereunder are tabulated the returns since 1900 :—

This table, especially the part dealing with first admissions, is important, as it deals with occurring insanity and not with the surviving accumulation of years; but in making deductions it must be remembered that our population is yearly augmented by ready-made adults, persons who do not dilute the ratio during the immune period of their lives. Ignoring the irregularities, there is undoubtedly r tendency towards an increasing ratio, and 1910 with its 72 admissions in excess of the previous year stands higher for all admissions (770 to 10,000) than any previous year since 1900, and shares, with 1908, a similar position with respect to first admissions. It will be seen that while in the average of the ten previous years every 1,462 persons in the population contributed an inmate to the mental hospitals, in the year under review an inmate was contributed by every l,2!)9; and. with regard to persons whose insanity was for the first time brought under the notice of the Department, every 1,604 persons in the general population contributed one in 1910, and every 1,804 persons one in the average of the ten previous years. In this connection, the following quotations from the Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded will be of interest, especially so at this time when the matters referred to have been kept in mind during the framing of the Mental Defectives Bill which was circulated last year, and which you have expressed your intention to introduce in the coming session of Parliament : Sir Edward Fry stated in evidence, — " The ranks of the insane, as well as of the imbecile, are recruited from the children of the feeble-minded. ... In the ruder state of society which has passed away, little heed was taken of those unfortunate children, and many of them,-no doubt, died comparatively early in the xtvupgle For existence. But we have learned to think more tenderly of the inferior members of the race, ami we seek to protect them from the calamities and sufferings to which they are naturally exposed, and to preserve their lives to the utmost. But in so doing, and so doing rightly, we incur, it appears to mc, another responsibility — namely, that of preventing, so far as we reasonably can, the perpetuation of a low type of humanity, for otherwise the beneficence of one genera tion becomes the burden and injury of all succeeding ones." The Commissioners came to the following conclusion : — " In our opinion, the general feeling of the people would at present rightly condemn any legislation directed chiefly or exclusively to the prevention of hereditary transmission of mental defect by surgical or other artificial means. . . The evidence strongly supports measures, which on other grounds are of pressing importance, for placing mentally defective persons, men and women, who are living at large and uncontrolled, in institutions where they will be employed and detained ; and in this, and in other ways, kept under effectual supervision as long as may be necessary." De.afht and Discharges. —Out of 4,558 cases (m., 2,722; f., 1,836) representing the total under oare durinsr the year, the number discharged (omitting transfers, where discharge from one institution is coincident with admission into another) was 383 (m., 211 : f., 172), and 283 patients

Year. Ratio to 10,i I of Population of First Admissions. Number of Persons id Population contributing One Admission. On» First Admission. Admissions. 1EC0 1S01 ... ... i 1902 1903 1904 6-89 6-83 6-48 6-78 655 502 561 5-U7 5-60 5-42 1,565 1,464 1,542 1,473 1,526 1,990 1,774 1,971 1,783 1,844 Quinquennial average 661 6-61 5-36 1,513 1,866 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 6-76 7-16 6-39 7-63 7.15 5-59 5-82 504 6-24 5-76 1,478 1,396 1,567 1,311 1,398 1,786 1,718 1,982 1,604 1,737 [uinquennial average 7-04 5-70 1,421 1,754 'ecennial average ... 6-84 5'54 1,462 1,804 910 7-70 623 1,299 1,604