The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3068, 27 April 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1881.

A recent telegram from Wellington stated that it was the intention of the Government to prosecute everyone concerned in the Lunatic Ayslura misdemeanors against whom a prima facie case could be made.out. This is as it should be. It would be grossly unfair to make of Whitelaw alone the sacrificial scapegoat. He is bad enough, but his treatment of the poor helpless creatures in his charge could never have gone the length it did if all entrusted with seeing that the law was carried out had done their

duty. Not only was there an Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, but there were visiting justices. What were they doing that they did not discover the extraordinary recipes adopted at the Mount View Asylum for the cure of the insane ? A "Justice of the Peace," writing to the Wellington Post, strongly approves of the opinions that journal expressed on the conduct of the Visiting Justices, Messrs Woodward and Holdsworth, for the neglect of the public duties entrusted to them by the Government. In their defence it is claimed for them that their office became obsolete. As their appoint ment, however, only dates from October last year, we should like to know when and by what means the duties appertaining to it became obsolete. There is an Act of Parliament in existence, at all events, which expressly enacts that two Visiting Juetices of the Peace should be appointed, and there can be no doubt that the Legislature supposed that the persons so appointed would faithfully do their duty. A part of that duty was unquestionably to report to the Colonial Secretary any irregularities or neglect, not only on the part of the officers of the Asylum and its Superintendent, but even of that of the Inspector himself. Such is the opinion of " Justice of the Peace," and he goes on to say :—"Tome it appears more than ever necessary that Visiting Justices should still perform their functions with which they are clothed with the authority of tbe law of the land, and as I ventured to say in a former letter on this subject, had they rigidly and honestly done so since their appointment, the Royal Commission's labors might not have been required, and the scandal and disgrace which has arisen to Wellington and the colony might have been prevented." A vital public principle is involved in the matter. If any gentleman accepts an office of honor and distinction, he must for the future be alive to the fact that be cannot, nor will be be allowed, to escape public accusation, if he wilfully or carelessly neglects to do his duty.