INEBRIATES AT SUNNYSIDE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2011, 4 August 1880, Page 3

INEBRIATES AT SUNNYSIDE.

[By Tblegbaph.]

[PBOM DUB OWN OOBBB3PONDENT.]

WELLINGTON, August 3

Speaking of the habitual drunkards committed to the Christchurch Asylum under the 21st section of tho Lunatics Act, the Inspector says :—“ Throe of each sex were in the asylum at the commencement ot the year, and two males and three females wore admitted for the first time. One female was re-admitted, making twelve in all under treatment. Two males and four females were discharged as recovered, and two males and one female as not improved, and ono male and two females remained at the end of the year. In every case but one tho judge’s order of committal directed that the patient should be detained in the asylum for twelve months unless ordered to be discharged before the end of that time. Only one, however, of those discharged during the year had remained that time. It can hardly be supposed that when a man’s moral powers have so utterly broken down under the influence of drink as to justify his being placed in confinement, two or three days’ repentance or a few months of rebellious grumbling are likely to secure his recovery. A year’s seclusion does not seem a day too long, but the patient can seldom bo got to take this view. Shortly after being placed in the asylum tho more immediate effects of drink disappear; nothing is left but what cannot be seen. Impatience and self-confidence daily increase ; the patient bewails that his family is in destitution and his business being ruined through bis prolonged detention, and he protests that he is all right and determined to drink no more. His wife believes him, and the doctor is called in to re-examine him. Ten to ono he is looking as fresh as a daisy, and there is nothing remarkable about him except his resolve not to drink. So he is discharged as‘recovered,’ which no doubt he is from the acute symptoms which may have principally led to his being placed in the Asylum, but in many oases the tendency to drink remains and reasserts itself almost as soon as liberty is regained. In all oases the patient’s maintenance is ordered to be paid for at a certain weekly rate, and in the cases in the Asylum during the year this hud been fixed at4os in one, at 30s in two, at 25s in three, and at 20a in the six others. It can hardly havo been the intention of the Act that habitual drunkards should be maintained gratis in asylums, and at the same time be at liberty to spend their time in absolute idleness. Yet this is what actually happens when although an order for payment for board has been made, it turns out that there are no funds from which payment can be got. Those patients will rarely work. They are not working men to begin with, and they object to do anything inconsistent with their dignity as drunkards and calculated to confuse them with those who are really insane. Then when maintenance has been paid for their presence has generally an injurious influence. They spend all their time in amusements or gambling. Their superior airs hurt tho feelings of their insane companions, and their determined idleness sets a bad example, But in tho ease of those who pay nothing, more broadcloth paupers, this lordly idleness is peculiarly offensive to both patients and officers of the Asylum. There is no proper accommodation in the Asylum for this class of patients. A separate house is wanted, ar, d indeed has been built for them, hut owing to overcrowding it cannot be reserved for their exclusive use. Moreover, they could not possibly be confined to it and the small garden attached to it. Nor could it be occupied by both sexes. As it is tho male inebriates reside in a small part of it, and the females in the ordinary wards of tho Asylum, Great as are tho annoyances which result from the reception of habitual drunkards into asylums and tho small benefits from such generosity, it does not appear desirable altogether to rescind the law which provides tho only means of recovery to a class of people who are a misery to themselves and others, and many ef whom are undoubtedly desirous to get rid of their infirmity, and some of whom do through those means. The disadvantage of the present system will perhaps be diminished when a medical superintendent is in charge of tho asylum. In a few years, the experience of the retreats for inebriates, which are about to be established in England, may / justify the adoption of a similar plan of treatment here,”