H.—4,

4

The Resident Surgeon, the Keeper, and myself all feel that we are underpaid for our services, and I am told the male attendants likewise conceive that in justice their salaries ought to be increased. Dr. Paley, than whom no higher authority could be adduced in regard to Lunatic Asylums, stayed, in the year 1872 or 1873, about a week in Auckland, I am credibly informed, and during that time repeatedly visited the Auckland Provincial Lunatic Asylum, and made it his business to thoroughly acquaint himself with the whole of its routine ; and I am told, moreover, that he expressed it as his decided opinion that its officials were not paid so well as in the other Asylums. He also said, with respect to the male attendants, that the practice observed in other Asylums was to give them a rise of £5 every year according to merit (salary commencing at £60), until their salaries amounted to £120, and he did not see why a system which acted so beneficially elsewhere should not be adopted here. I would only, in conclusion, remark that Dr. Paley is quite cognizant of all the duties that have to be performed by the respective officers, and consequently that from his position he might be considered a competent judge as to the adequacy or inadequacy of Lunatic Asylums officials' salaries. In my own individual case, I think that no man of common sense or honor either can or will say that I am sufficiently paid for the services rendered by me. I have, &c, H. D. Morpeth, J.P. Inspector of Lunatic Asylums for the Province of Auckland. His Honor the Superintendent, Auckland.

No. 2. Mr. Eeadeb Wood to the Hon. the Colonial Secbetabt. Sib, — Superintendent's Office, Auckland, 7th March, 1876. Adverting to the Inspector's annual report upon the Auckland Provincial Lunatic Asylum, which I transmitted to you on the 4th February ultimo for presentation to Parliament, I have the honor to request that you will be good enough to cause the enclosed correspondence to be appended thereto, and to be laid before the Assembly. I have, &c, Eeadeb Wood, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. (for the Superintendent).

Enclosure 1 in No. 2. Mr. Eeadeb Wood to Mr. Mobpeth. Sib, — Superintendent's Office, Auckland, 4th February, 1876. Eeferring to that paragraph in your annual report on the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in which you state that the custom prevails of allowing all worn-out clothing to accumulate until the end of each year, I have the honor to inquire why, in your capacity as Inspector, you allowed this " corruption " to accumulate without reporting the matter until such a state of things has arisen as you describe in your report? I have, Ac, Eeadeb Wood, The Inspector of Asylums, Auckland. Provincial Secretary.

Enclosure 2 in No. 2. Mr. Mobpeth to Mr. Eeadeb "Wood. Sib, — Ponsonby, Auckland, sth February, 187 G. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday's date. Tou ask " Why in my capacity as Inspector I allowed this corruption to accumulate without reporting the matter until such a state of things has arisen as I describe." In answer thereto I beg to state that the report I have recently sent in is only my second report. I could not refer to everything in my first report, seeing my connection with the institute was of so comparatively recent a date. Perhaps the more pertinent question would have been, " Why did not my predecessors acquaint the Government with such a state of things ?" But I respectfully submit that I am not in any way answerable for either their acts or for their laches. Permit me to observe that the object for keeping to the end of the year the worn-out garments and bedding of the patients so particularly mentioned and animadverted on in my report was that a proper account might be given to the Government of all the garments and bedding, &c, supplied to the patients. The practice, in my opinion, was decidedly a wrong one, for I thought that Mr Lowrey, so long and so faithful an officer, might well be trusted to give a correct account. At all events, be that as it may, I have given him strict injunctions to at once bury or burn whatsoever is unserviceable, keeping, of course, an account of such materials, but not for the time to come to allow an accumulation of such useless materials to lie rotting in any part of the premises. I very humbly, but at the same time confidently, submit that I have a just right to take credit to myself for having brought under the notice of the Government a state of things that ought never to have existed; and if I have been the means of putting an end to so pernicious and dangerous a system, I submit that I have done that which is right and proper. It is notorious to Dr. Aickin and to Mr. Lowrey, the keeper, that I have, particularly of late, called the attention of the Matron and her attendants to the very offensive effluvia floating through