The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1928. THE MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 227, 25 September 1928, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1928. THE MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance. And the good that toe can do.

It is to be feared that large numbers of people who have paid some attention to the Mental Defectives Bill have not yet realised the grave dangers to personal and social liberty which it threatens in its present form. There are many provisions in this measure which are open to criticism, but this seems to us its very worst feature, and we are glad to see that the Christchurch "Press," which cannot be accused of any political prejudice in the matter, has dealt very severely with the special clauses in the Bill concerning "social defectives." These are defined by the Bill in its present form as "persons who suffer from mental deficiency associated with anti-social conduct." On this the "Press" remarks that "it is not harsh to say of this clause that it is utterly foolish and dangerous." It is impossible to say what the Bill means by "social defectiveness" or "anti-social conduct." But it is quite evident that these highly elastic and expansible terms might be stretched to cover almost any conceivable type or class of person whom either the Departmental officials or the political authorities behind thnn might regard as objectionable or dangerous; in which case, as the "Press" succinctly puts it, "the offenders would be registered and locked up." We do not suggest that those responsible for this Bill have any deliberate malign and insidious purpose in view. But it is obviously inadvisable to pass a measure which could be interpreted in such a way as to justify the most grievous forms of personal or social tyranny. And this objection is immensely strengthened by the failure of the Bill's sponsors to show that it is based on any sound biological principle. There is no authoritative scientific opinion to support their fundamental assumption that mental defects arc always or in the great majority of cases inherited. Biologists with true scientific caution admit we know very little about the matter, and that we cannot afford to commit ourselves to the positive assertions taken for granted by the Bill. On this point Prof. Anderson, in a letter which appears elsewhere on this page, quotes a distinguished French psychiatrist to the effeet that "the children of persons mentally deficient are often exceptionally intelligent." In support of this view we may cite Dr. Shaw Bolton, Professor of Mental Diseases at Leeds University, who in a letter to the "Morning Post" attacked our much-advertised Mental Defectives Bill with uncompromising vigour. Dr. Bolton, like Dr. Temulouse, insists that "mentally defective persons are not necessarily the progeny of mental defectives"; on the contrary, "enormous numbers of mental defectives of all kinds are procreated by apparently normal and healthy parents." From this he infers that "registration and the prohibition of marriage" could not have any appreciable effect in diminishing the number of mentally deficient persons in the community. As to the "social defectives" who are to be amenable to similar treatment, Dr. Bolton acutely observes that nothing could possibly be done to limit their number, as they could be detected and identified only by some anti-social act that they might happen to commit. Elsewhere in his letter Dr. Bolton draws attention to this "socially defective class" as defined by the Bill, and thinks it necessary to add that "such dangerous and revolutionary social proposals seem to call for a word of warning." Dr. Bolton concludes by expressing the hope that "the New Zealand House of Representatives will reject the Bill with no uncertain voice"; and we trust that Parliament will follow his advice without unnecessary delay.