Karori Lunatic Asylum

Karori Lunatic Asylum was run by the Wellington Province of New Zealand between 1854 and 1873. It was the colony's first lunatic asylum that was independent of a prison.

An individual could be certified as a lunatic by a legal and medical process. Lunatics usually had mental disorders or cognitive impairments. Those who did not have anyone to care for them and were not believed to be a danger to the public could be admitted to an asylum. They would stay until they were certified as recovered and were discharged, or they died. The only treatment was moral management, a routine usually consisting of work or exercise, recreations and religious services, which allowed some patients to recover. The staff were laypeople who were supposed to care for patients humanely and model orderly behaviour.

Karori is now the westernmost suburb of Wellington, but, in the mid-1800s, it was a rural village isolated from the city by a poor road. The asylum opened in 1854. Its patients were paupers who did not have the money to pay for their care. The number of patients grew gradually until the mid-1860s. After that, the number of patients grew more rapidly than the resources to house and care for them. This led to overcrowding throughout the asylum. It also led to understaffing, particularly on the women's wing. Supervision of the asylum lacked rigour and independent oversight proved ineffective. In 1872, a provincial inquiry found a history of patients being ill-treated by two long-serving staff leaders. The leaders were replaced.

In 1871, the parliamentary committee on lunatic asylums singled out Karori for urgent improvement. The provincial council responded by building Mount View Lunatic Asylum. It could accommodate twice as many patients as Karori and was closer to Wellington city so easier for inspectors to visit. In 1873, Karori asylum closed after its patients and staff moved to Mount View. The failures of Karori Lunatic Asylum were used to justify replacing lay leaders of asylums with medical practitioners.