§ MR. W. J. CORBETasked the Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Report of the Lunacy Commissioners just laid upon the Table, Whether, with regard to App. E. p. 330, which is a Return for County and Borough Asylums of the average weekly cost of maintenance, &c., he will ask the Commissioners for a statement of the annual cost as well; whether his attention has been called to the incomplete Return of Expenditure in Lunatic Hospitals, App. F.; whether the omission of the expenditure of the Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital will be supplied; and, if he will be good enough to cause at least an approximate Return of the Cost of Lunatics in Poor Houses to be given, and show in concrete form the total number of lunatics of all classes maintained from public sources, and the cost of maintenance?
§ MR. HIBBERTThe total annual cost of all English lunatic asylums appears in the copies of the abstracts of asylum accounts transmitted to the Lunacy Commissioners under the Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 97, s. 58, and are annually laid on the Table of the House after careful examination and correction; but hitherto have never been ordered to be printed. These abstracts will be laid upon the Table in the course of a few days, and will be accessible to Members in the Library. As regards the omission in Appendix F, it must be understood that the information contained in that Appendix is given by the courtesy of the superintendents of the hospitals, and there is no power to compel them to send it. The Medical Superintendent of the Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital has, in regard to his Return, had four letters addressed to him on the subject without effect. As regards the cost of lunatics in workhouses, no separate accounts are kept by Boards of Guardians of such costs; and it would not be possible for the Local Government Board to furnish such a Return.