ALLEGED WRONGFUL DETENTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1871, 3 October 1913, Page 3

ALLEGED WRONGFUL DETENTION.

( MENTAL HOSPITAL CASE. In. a petition which was presented to the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. A. ; Glover (Auckland Central), ■George Dean,' engineer, of Auckland,asks for an investigation into tlie circumstances connected with committal ti> and detention in the Auckland Mental Hospital, and also asks for compensation for his wrongful detention. The petitioner states that in October, 1911, he rescued' a boy from drowning at Devonport early in the morning. He plunged into the water fully clothed and nad to remain in his wet clothes all, day- Tho result was that he caught a severe chill, and was taken to tho Auckland Hospital, where he remained for about six weeks. At the end of that time, he states, he was sent to the Mental Hospital. It was only after he had been in the latter institution about two weeks that ho regained his speech. He asked Dr. Beattie, the superintendent, Why ho had been committed to tho institution, but the only reply he received was that he would remain there for six months. Tho potitioner proceeds"Dr. Murray, the medical officer who attended me at tho hospital, gavo me his emphatic opinion that I should never have been committed, and whatever may have been the opinions of tho medical officers (which I presumo were obtained) 0:1 committal, I was certainly of perfectly sound mental condition, and from the time of recovery of speech my utterances and action' were manifestly those of a sane man—yot, notwithstanding this, it was not until six months had expired that I was released. I and also my wife repeatedly made application for release, but was unable to obtain same or to have my case investigated or even obtain any information as to the circumstances connected with, or roasons for, my committal." . It is further stated by the petitioner that for some months prior to his release from tho institution ho was 111 chargo of the engines connected with the stone-crusher and chaff-cutter. He was, ho repeats, perfectly sane, and on his release was immediately able to take up a job on the Auckland wharves. The potitioner, who is 63 years of aire, asserts that as the outcome of the severe illness contracted by plunging into tho water and saving the boy, coupled with the effect of his surroundings in the Mental Hospital, ho is -now partially paralysed, and incapable of earning his living. He is now dependent on the meagre earnings of his wife. He Biontions that ha has wived no fowor than foiut nerwni frps diomoum-