CAPT. FRASER AND THE MAYOR'S COURT.

Evening Star, Issue 3281, 26 August 1873, Page 3

CAPT. FRASER AND THE MAYOR'S COURT.

To the Editor. Sir, _ J observed in your last night’s issue an extract from a speech made by the Hon. Capt. Fraser, in the Legislative Council, when speaking on the question of the appointment of an Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, which demands somewhat more than a passing notice. In support of his argument. the hon. gentleman is reported to have said that a person whom he knew had been brought before the Mayor’s Court charged with lunacy ; that the Inspector of Police had summoned two Justices to adjudicate, one being a recent invention of the Minister of Justice, a greer, and the other a person named Klack, who was totally unknown to him ; that these two Solons called in the aid of two medical men, and they, after examination, declared the man to be insane, and he was duly consigned to the Lunatic Asylum. That the hon. gentleman heard of the matter, knew the man had had a quarrel with his wife, visited the Asylum, saw him, called in the aid of the Superintendent, they together declared the individual sane, and caused him to be liberated. The hon. gentleman then trusts the Colonial Secretary will give his attention to the case, and prevent anymore lunatics or suspected lunatics being brought before the Mayor’s Court, and thereby prevent injustice being done, and concludes by saying that all such persons should be brought before the Resident Magistrate’s Court, where medical gentlemen of reputation will be called in. You will observe, sir, that the hon. gentleman’s remarks do not apply to me personally, for although Mayor at the time, I did not happen to adjudicate on the case referred to, but in justice to my brother Magistrates who kindly did duty for me on that occasion, and also to the medical profession of Dunedin, who have for the past three years been in the habit of examining lunatics brought before the Court, I feel boqnd to say a word- With regard to the latter, I jnay say my custom has been to call them in to examine perrons charged with lunacy, as far as I could in rotation —that is, jf 'Dr? A ' and B examine# a lunatic to-day, Era B and O’would do so tomorrow, and so on ; and this I have done without regard to social position or standing, believing as I do that it is not necessary for a medical man to occupy a leading social position, or even to have the honor of enjoying the confidence of the hon. Capt. Fraser to be a talented man, or that, lacking both these, he must necessarily be a man without “reputation or intelligence.” The insult conveyed to the medical profession in these remarks is so flagrant that I shall be surprised if the hon. Capt. Fraser does not receive a “rap over the knuckles” from someone besides myself. Tha contemptuous manner in which the two Justices are spoken of merits also the severest condemnation. It may be in the estimation of the hon, gentleman a very discreditable thing to be a grocer, and worse still to be “a person totally unknown ” to the hon. gentleman; but 1 have no doubt both the gentlemen so insultingly referred to will get over* it, and perhaps they are both held in higher estimation by their fellow-citizens than the hon. gentleman himself. Sir, it is the exhibition of such disgusting snobbery and inanity as this, that has brought our superior Legislature into such deserved contempt, and calls loudly for an alteration in its constitution. In conclusion, sir, I would recommend the Hon. Captain Fraser not to venture into a lunatlc asylum again, for fear, after the exhibition he has made of himself, the master thereof might keep him there, to the serious loss of the acumen and wisdom of the Legislative Council and the Colony generally.—l am, Ac,, Jd. S. Fish, Junr. Dunedin, August 26,