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Paying patients.
7. Paying patients are a new source of revenue, though, I fear, much money can
never be realised in this way in the Punjab. A prisoner, acquitted of
murder on the ground of insanity in 1874, being a pensioner of
Government, was our first paying patient. The deduction was made from his pension by
order of the Commissioner.
Since then, it having been discovered that the husband of a Eurasian lunatic woman,
admitted as a pauper, was employed on the Northern State Railway, application was made for
payment, and he paid regularly Rs. 10 a month for her keep, from August 1875 up to July
1876. Since this he has paid nothing, although he has been reminded. Further inquiry will
be made about this.
The Deputy Commissioner of Lahore has also paid Rs. 5 for a lunatic named Jewan,
and Rs. 20 for another named Fattah.
Manufactures.
8. The net profit from this source has amounted to only Rs. 70-6-5, of which Rs. 50
has been credited to Government, as shown in the above table;
Rs. 45-8-7 has been reserved for the purchase of raw material.
This includes a balance in hand from last year of Rs. 24-0-11. The manufactures have always
been a difficulty in this Asylum. In 1871 they were a little more profitable, but the cholera
and fever of 1872 swept off some of our most skillful workmen, whom years of labor and per-
severance on the part of the Native Doctor, named Mirza Koodrat Ali, who had been in the
Asylum from its commencement, had succeeded in teaching a little handicraft. Then the
Native Doctor himself died, and nobody since has succeeded very well, for nobody in the
establishment knew the work as well as he did. Darries, gárhá cloth, blankets, niwár and reed
chiks, however, are still made ; but the whole thing is at a very low ebb, as is evident from the
small sum credited to Government. I see that there has been a correspondence on this subject
during the past year : the profitable labor of the Dullunda Asylum has been pointed out, and
the reports have been supplied to us, in order that we may learn the secret of its pecuniary
prosperity. A glance at the report is sufficient. There is a permanent establishment of
instructors costing Rs. 179 a month, and machinery valued at Rs. 27,329.
The only instructor we have at Lahore is a warder who receives Re. 1 a month in addition
to his regular pay of Rs. 7. It is true we have a tailor on Rs. 7, a mállí on Rs. 8, and
assistant mállí on Rs. 6 ; but they are not entertained as instructors, and are fully employed
in their own work. Our machinery is valued at Rs. 31. If a good staff of instructors and
good machinery were supplied us, I doubt not that in time we should succeed as well as the
Dullunda Asylum.
One great obstacle to making the manufactures remunerative is the difficulty of selling
things when ready. This is partly due to the situation of the Asylum, at the extreme end of the
station beyond the railway. Nobody, of course, comes out here to buy when he can purchase
as cheaply nearer home. There is one thing of which we may be said to have a monopoly,
viz., syphon filters of the kind used within the Asylum ; but the demand for these outside is so
small that they are scarcely at all profitable. Again, since I took charge of the Asylum in
1871, we have had no less than four Deputy Superintendents, so that not one of them has had
time to work up the manufactures. The present Deputy Superintendent, Abdul Hámid, takes
a great interest in them, and has succeeded in making some good blankets, which will be very
useful in the Asylum. I am very strongly of opinion that the best plan to make the manu-
factures remunerative is to devote our attention exclusively to those things that can be turned
to account within the institution.
Establishment.
9. This remains the same as regards numbers and expenditure. Dr. Penny held
charge till December 8th, when I returned from England and relieved
him. Assistant Surgeon Taboo Singh was removed on 20th Septem-
ber, and his place supplied by Assistant Surgeon Abdul Hámid.