MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1198, 5 August 1911, Page 3

MENTAL DEFECTIVES BILL.

„ MINISTER'S EXPLANATION, 0 ■ 1 COMMENTS BY MEMBERS. " ® The nest business taken was the second reading of tiro Mental Defectives Bill I (the Hon. G. Fowlds). a The Hon. G. FOWLDS, in moving the second reading of tho Mental Defectives Bill, stated that it was intended to replace • the Lunatics Act of 1903, which had eiuj bodied the substanco of previous Acts, in P which wcro incorporated' the provisions i of a number of English Acts, which were now deemed to be too limited in their scope. Under the new Bill tho incidence of mental defect in the community would bo notified and registered. In his' experience as [Minister, he had como to con--3 elusions, borne out by tho report of a 5 recent Royal Commission, upon lunacy, - in England. Tho Act extended protection - to all classes of mentally defective per--3 eons requiring oversight or control for • their own good or in the public interest. I? c t; ta^n S 1C provisions of tho Act, 5 ii -F ow "lds. asked the House to remember : that they were dealing not with luna- - tics only, but with mentally defective peri sons. . The Question of Detention. | There must, of course, be some latii tude allowed, but tho'public demanded • that there should bo no detention not • legally sanctioned, and this demand had ) been borne in mind. The question of detention had to bo placed on a legal i basis. Tho methods provided were more ■ uniform than under the .Act of .1908.. Under that Act a reception : order "permitted tho detention of a patient Until death or discharge. Under.the new Act tho caso of each patient would'be carefully considered and dealt willvbv means of a certificate each year. • Part *2 of the Act dealt with tho case of patients kept, under supervision, outside .'of institutions. Part 4 of tho Act dealt with persons who, uitder tho Act of 1908> .would have been called criminal lunatics. Under that Act the principle of "once a criminal lunatic always a criminal lunatic,"'was affirmed. The discharge of a mere vagrant, transferred to an institution, was hedged about , with formalities. Under the new-A.ct, any lunatic sentenced would' become an ordinary patient at the expiration of the sentence imposed -by tho Court.. In Part, Five of the Bill a notable departure was made in opening the way. for persons, to place..'themselves- under treatment. ' It was honed that : many border-iino, cases .'would thus bo dealt with, and (hat cires would bo effected without tho interposition of a magistrate's order. Unconfirmed cases would be treated without legal" formalities, .and in tune such treatment will be carried out m special wards ol the general hospitals, ihe Bill was not a controversial, measure. It had been delayed for some time owing to tho necessity of providing separate institutions for tho reccntion of the various classes of .mental defectives. Tho Bill had been very carefully revised, and would b* a great improvement upon existing legislation.