CONTROL OF THE UNFIT

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1441, 16 May 1912, Page 5

CONTROL OF THE UNFIT

SIR J. FINDLAY'S VIEWS.

WHAT NEW ZEALAND IS DOING

The first of the new series of lectures promoted by the Library Committee of the City Council was provided by the Eugenics Society Inst evening, when Sir John Find: lay lectured on "Jingcnics and the Control of the Unfit." Professor 11. ]}. Kirk, president of tho society, presided over a fairly numerous and very attentive audience.

Tho lecturer stated that during the last fifty years tho social conscience had grown increasingly sensitive to the weak and the unfit as objects of compassion, .but .the collective human kindness which prompted tho protection of these unfortunates from tho rigours and tho struggle for existence shrank irorn the stern measures which were necessary to protect society from th» unrestricted multiplication of the=e helpless dependents. Yet what appeared to be harshness would often bo but an enliuhtcnetl kindness. Our Eugenic - Legislation. Eugenic legislation in New Zealand had not yet proceeded very far. By an amendment of tho Industrial Schools Act in 1889 it was provided that, where an. inmate of I a school is morally degenerate, or otherwise 19 not in the public interest a fit person to be at liberty, that inmate may under periodic orders of a magistrate bo oetained permanently in the institution, ihe proper liberty of the ihmato was i ampiy safeguarded, and this law was periiaps the first direct step wo have taken to prevent the propagation of the unfit, Tho effect of tho Act if strenuously enforced would be to prevent these degenerates from being allowed to roam at largo and propagate their kind. No one; lie thought, would question tho wisdom of Buch a measure. An amendment of tho liMucntinn Act, 1910 enabled the State to get ho custody of fe,ble.,nh,ded, epileptic, and; oiher defective children, and a child for this purpose meant a boy or girl 1 under twenty-one years of age. A statutory .provision had also been made of a fa-r-reacliniff effect, giving tho police power to bring before a magistrate, with aview to admission to an industrial school, nnv boy or girl under sixteen years of ngo who was not under proper control; and tin's of course, would include degenerate children who, once in the school, might be detained indefinitely in the manner already outlined.

A Question of Administration. It was quite obvious that these laws, if properly administered, would do much to reduce tho propagation of these almost hopeiess classes of tho unfit. But (-] ie success of such legislation lies in its administration. We were all apt to consider a reform accomplished when wo had pot it in tiie Sratnte-book. As yet no provision had been mado for tho nccommodntiott in State institutions of the unfortunate children to be taken charge of under tho wide powers coniorred in 1910 by tho Education Amendment Act. Thero were, it was true, thirty-one bovs in residence at the Otekaiko School. "Tho Year : Book for 1911- save tho net expenditure 1 on the institution as something over &13i for each Inmate per annum. There iras as yet no accommodation at all for defective girls, and until tho State had spent large sums in providing the necessary accommodation and stall, these now beneficent provisions must remain little better than a dead letter. Perhaps more

important as a. step in this direction is the Mental Defectives Act passed last year. If strongly and wisely administered, and sufficient accommodation provided, there would Iks a greatly, increased segregation in public institutions of these unfortunates under conditions which would limit that propagation of their kind, which'otherwise would have continued. The lecturer also insisted that; habitual criminals should bo.permanently incarcerated. The Line of Advance, New Zealand hail attempted none of the radical, novel, and sometimes startling experiments in reducing and controlling tho unlit which now figured upon tlio statute books ef many States in America. Tho laws for presenting marriages of the unfit had been disappointing in (heir results, because the feeble-minded criminal, and generally irresponsible closses, escaped them by resorting to illcgnl unions. Thus the hopelessness of operating by legislation upon the will of these classes had forced upon expert opinion in America the wisdom of an increasing resort to segregation and sterilisation.

Of course, oven if such measures wove desirable in Kow Zealand, it would, be hopeless to propose them. Public opinion was not ripe here oven for their consideration, and in the field of practical eugenics no real advance could be made which did hot take- general public approval along with i(. The best service the Eugenics Education Society could do was to stimulate attention to. the need and nature of eugenic methods, to educate die man in the street , up to a rational conception of what the unlimited propagation of the- unfit means to our social wellbeing, to dispel blind prejudices to scientific methods, and twich those who wove always talking, !>ut mlilpii) talking common'sense, that the main principles of eugenics wore but the proved common sense of the best minds in systematic shape. The lectuiw received a hearty vote of thanks.