Karori Lunatic Asylum

Karori Lunatic Asylum held and cared for patients with mental disorders
in the Wellington Province of New Zealand from 1854 to 1873.
The patients had been certified as lunatics, but were not considered a danger to the public.
It was the country's first lunatic asylum that was independent of a prison.
Karori was then a rural village isolated by a poor road, but it is now the westernmost suburb of Wellington.

At that time, asylums followed the principle of moral management.
The staff were supposed to model calm and humane behaviour,
while the patients went about their chores and leisure activities.
But the staff were laypeople who simply managed the patients, they did not treat them.

Karori asylum offered an effective mental health service until the mid-1860s.
However, by 1871, overcrowding and understaffing at the asylum led to calls for reform
from a parliamentary committee.
The provincial council responded by building Mount View Lunatic Asylum in Wellington city centre.

In 1872, a provincial inquiry concluded that the asylum's staff leaders had been physically abusing patients.
The leaders were dismissed, and the asylum returned to moral management under their replacements.
Karori Lunatic Asylum closed in 1873 after its patients moved to Mount View.

History

Lunatics and asylums

The Lunatics Act 1846 enabled the colony to hold and care for lunatics:
people who were "... dangerously insane ..." or "... of unsound mind."
Two doctors and a magistrate could certify someone as a lunatic, and later certify that they had recovered.
Lunatics who were considered a danger to the public were held in prisons.
The rest were held in asylums or public hospitals unless they had relatives or friends to care for them.
The Constitution Act 1852 divided the colony into six provinces,
and made the provinces responsible for asylums.
Regular independent inspections of asylums were introduced by The Lunatics Act 1868.

At that time, asylum staff were laypeople who were not trained to treat mental disorders.
They aimed to help patients recover by following the principles of moral management and non-restraint.
Moral management involved
"Patience, gentle treatment, nourishing diet, cleanliness with light employment or exercise goes far to recover the lunatic ... Good example in the attendants is the greatest guide, and gives confidence to the patients.", according to James Hume who led the asylum in Dunedin.
Non-restraint meant that a troubled patient would be confined in a padded cell
instead of being physically restrained.

Opening and growth (18541865)

Karori Lunatic Asylum opened in 1854 with one patient and one member of staff.
Asylums had been added to Wellington and Auckland prisons in 1844,
but Karori was the first independent asylum in New Zealand.

The asylum was on a section,
which has a corner on Karori Road and Donald Street where Karori Normal School is today.
Wellington city was away on a poor road.
The asylum building was a house,
which was extended in 1857.
In contrast to a prison,
there was little physical security to keep patients at the asylum.
By 1862, it was enclosed in post-and-rail fencing
used on farms to contain livestock.
It had a kitchen garden, which supplied most of the asylum's vegetables,
and a flower garden of a similar size.

In 1857, the first medical officer was appointed:
a doctor who visited the asylum at least once a week to tend the physical health of the patients.
In 1862, a report by the newly-appointed medical officer, doctor France, mentioned 10 patients at the asylum.
The number of staff had also grown to three:
the keeper (or master) and matron, Mr and Mrs William Sutherland,
and an assistant (or attendant).
France's predecessor noted it had been two years since the last patient absconded
and restraint had not been used.

There were two types of patient: chronic and acute.
Chronic (or incurable) patients were held for life.
A smaller number of acute patients were admitted, then recovered sufficiently to be discharged.

The asylum was further extended in 1863.
By 1865, there were 12 patients.
The main building had 10 wards for patients, and there was a separate block of four cells.
According to Williams (1987), in her history of Wellington asylums,
Karori offered an effective mental health service during this period.

Overcrowding and departure from moral management (1866May 1872)

In Karori asylum's later years, the number of patients, particularly chronic, grew more quickly.
In 1867, official visitors reported that with 19 patients the asylum was at full capacity.
They also said it was understaffed and dilapidated.
Tenders for further building work at the asylum were invited later that year.

By 1871, a parliamentary committee was considering reform of asylums.
Their report recommended improving asylums in general,
but singled Karori out for "... immediate attention and reform."
The committee's chairman, doctor Andrew Buchanan, decided to make an inspection.

Buchanan found Karori asylum overcrowded with 23 patients in 13 wards, although the number of staff had also grown to five.
The keeper and matron, the Sutherlands who had led the staff since 1858,
seemed to be humane, and they showed Buchanan whatever he asked to see.
His report raised concerns about the lack of a bathroom,
poorly clothed patients, including a naked woman in an unheated cell, and male patients idling indoors.
Buchanan noted that "... the females never go outside the house."
Apart from the medical officer, there had been next to no visitors in months.
Buchanan recommended replacing Karori with a larger asylum.
He suggested it should be in Wellington city centre to make inspections easier.
The provincial council agreed,
and started work on a site off Adelaide Road overlooking the harbour.

Abuse of patients by staff leaders

In 1872, a newly-appointed assistant raised concerns about ill-treatment of patients by the matron and keeper.
The provincial council held an inquiry.
The assistant alleged the principles of moral management and non-restraint had been abandoned.
She said matron regularly abused patients both verbally and physically.
Newspaper coverage of the inquiry brought forward further witnesses, and the hearing was extended.

Two of the new witnesses were former assistants at Karori asylum.
In 1867, one of them had been dismissed shortly after raising his concerns about abuse.
The other, who had resigned in 1871, kept a diary in which he recorded the incidents of abuse that he had witnessed.
He read examples to the inquiry,
but, believing his concerns would be hard to prove, he had not raised them at the time.

After hearing contradictory testimony,
the inquiry concluded "... patients have been treated with unnecessary violence ..."
It also expressed surprise that the medical officer, doctor France, had not noticed the abuse.
The Sutherlands were dismissed.
In a subsequent criminal trial, they were found guilty of assaulting patients and fined.

Return to moral management and closure (June 1872May 1873)

Karori asylum returned to moral management under the new keeper and matron, Mr and Mrs Henry Seager.
Henry had worked at Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum in Christchurch,
which was led by his brother Edward Seager.

In May 1873, Karori Lunatic Asylum closed after 27 patients moved to Mount View Lunatic Asylum. The Seagers and medical officer France continued their roles at the new asylum.

Legacy

The problems experienced at Karori Lunatic Asylum helped to convince
Buchanan's parliamentary committee that asylums should be led by doctors not laypeople.

In 1875, Karori School moved to the section formerly occupied by the asylum.
Renamed Karori Normal School in 1968, it is still there today.

Notes

References

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Further reading

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The life story of Rebecca Parnell (18321903), who, in 1857, was the first female patient admitted to Karori Lunatic Asylum. Born in England, Parnell developed chronic and occasionally violent mania after family difficulties and the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake. She was abused in care and died of cancer in Porirua Lunatic Asylum, which replaced Mount View.

the Parnell article is not complete in th
archive of The Stockade 47 magazine
Karori Historical Society posted the article on Google Docs while they are fixing the archive of the magazine.

{{Hospitals in New Zealand

Buildings and structures in Wellington City
Psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand
Defunct hospitals in New Zealand
Hospitals established in 1854
1873 disestablishments in New Zealand
1854 establishments in New Zealand